iiil:'iV.?c4' Bequeathed to the University of Toronto Library by the late Theophile James Meek, Professor of Oriental Languages, University College, 1923-1952, and Head of the Department, 1951-1952. Keystone View Company In the day of Pentecost there were dwelling in Jerusalem " men from every nation under heaven." To-day, in David street there mingle Turk, Arab, Kurd, Syrian, Armenian, Persian, and the European and American THE NEAR EAST: Crossroads of the World BY WILLIAM H, HALL Principal of the Preparatory Department of the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, Syria; Editor of volume of reports for The American Committee of Relief in the Near East, entitled "Reconstruction in Turkey"; Author of magazine articles on the Near East in National Geographic Magazine and Asia WITH A FINAL CHAPTER By JAMES L. BARTON Foreign Secretary to the American Board of Missions and Director of the late Commission of the Near East Relief to Turkey and the Caucasus INTERCHURCH PRESS NEW YORK CITY Copyright, 1920, by THE INTERCHURCH WORLD MOVEMENT OF NORTH AMERICA FEB 1 4 1967 '(^SlTY Of TO*?^ ^^ EDITOR'S NOTE The first seven chapters of this book were written by Professor Hall just before his return last summer to Beirut, Syria. Since then, events in the Near East have crowded hard one upon the other, some of them carrying political significance. Commissions of sur- vey and inspection have pushed their inquiries into all quarters of the domain. The editors of this book have, therefore, counted it a stroke of good fortune that, upon his return in December from six months' travel in the Near East as director general of the Near East Relief, Dr. James L, Barton should have consented to write a final chap- ter in the light of more recent events and of his very- extended travels. In perfect fairness to the author of the book it should be said further that such editorial changes as have been made in Professor Hall's manuscript, and they have been minor, have been made of necessity without conference with him, owing to the six thou- sand miles of water intervening. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGt- Foreword ix I The World War in the Near East ... 3 II The Minghng of Many Nations ... 29 III Old Religions in the New Day ... 61 IV Home Life and Industries . . . . ^j V A Century of Missions 115. VI Western Influence on Eastern Education . 141 VII The World's Crossroads 171 VIII Shall the Land Be Healed? . . . .195 Bibliography 222 Index 226 ILLUSTRATIONS PACK Street scene in Jerusalem Frontispiece Emir Feisal 14 Wailing place of the Jews 46 Arab camp at the foot of Mt. Sinai 78 Irrigation problems in Mesopotamia 102 Native doctors trained by missionaries 126 Syrian Protestant College at Beirut 158 MAPS Map of the Near East End Papers Map showing Aleppo as the world's crossroads . . .174 FOREWORD The theme of this book is : what the war has brought to the Near East; what it has brought to political life through the break-up of old, outside, foreign domina- tions and the release of inborn national longings; what it has brought in racial relationships, in social and in- dustrial organization, and in religious development; what it has brought to education and to the work of Christian missions. Each of the subjects demands a look backward at what has been and a look forward to the promise of the new day, and then an apprecia- tion of the importance of this region in world rela- tions, with an insistence that there must be a just and Christian solution of the questions of the Near East. The point of view of the author is that of one who has resided at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains for nearly a quarter of a century. He labors under the disadvantage, therefore, of seeing all things through his Syrian glasses. He has traveled, however, through Egypt and Asia Minor although never in Persia. To be frank, he finds it easier to draw an illustration or make a historical reference with Syria in mind rather than with Egypt or Persia. But when a man has seen the life of one of these Eastern lands and has learned its social usages, religious customs, and man- ix X FOREWORD ner of thinking, he knows the characteristics of them all, with the exception of a few differences in local color. To those who have resided in any one of the various countries the picture will be blurred, dispro- portioned, and possibly indistinct. But they are too near the screen. Those who are looking from far- ther away are better able to get the perspective, and the color blendings of the picture will not seem so dis- torted. It is for the latter that the drawing has been made. The term " Near East " as used in this book includes Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Persia. It did not seem feasible to include the Balkans within the scope of this study, and Arabia is barely touched. But who knows Arabia? It is still a terra incognita, waiting as it has waited throughout untold centuries for the coming of a new day that has yet to dawn on that land of desert plains, fertile valleys, and ele- mental races. The question of the Near East has never been absent from the world forum. It has never been settled con- clusively because it has never been settled right. It never will be settled until statesmen and churchmen are willing to apply to this region of v/orld interest the principle of the Hebrew Prophet, " Let justice roll down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream." William H. Hall. Beirut, Syria, 1920. THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST CHAPTER ONE THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST /^N the tenth of December, 1917, the gates of ^^ Jerusalem were thrown open, and the British forces entered the Holy City. Probably no single event in all the great war so laid hold on the imagina- tion of the world as this victorious culmination of a desperate campaign along the ancient desert roads leading into Egypt. Just four centuries before, a Turkish army, sweeping down in full tide of conquer- ing power from the north, had taken the city from its Arab defenders. Rushing on like a mighty flood, the same army had conquered Egypt, overthrown the power of the Mamelukes, assumed the authority and title of the Moslem Caliphate, and brought the north African states under Turkish sway. A Center of Age-Long Conflict Only for one brief period since the year 637, when the city was first won by a Moslem conqueror. Caliph Omar, had it come under the control of Christians. 3 4 THE NEAR EAST This was in 1098, when the Crusaders, under Godfrey of Bouillon, captured the city after a bitter siege. The victory was followed by such a scene of carnage and massacre as has forever disgraced the name of " Crusade." What a contrast to the destruction and violence that had been visited upon Jerusalem by victor after victor in its long history, was the triumphal entry of General Allenby on that December morning in 191 7. Without arms or military parade he passed through the Jaffa Gate on foot, not as a conqueror " in the sign of the Cross," but as a sincere, devout disciple, coming as a man to his brother to bring " liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, ... to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes." ^ There followed Allenby into the city an army gath- ered from all the world. Then, after months of careful preparation, with Jerusalem as a base, there came the dashing campaign in northern Palestine and Syria which marked the collapse of Turkey as an effec- tive ally of the Central Powers. Almost the entire Turkish army was routed and captured. The world read with amazed interest of the exploits, not only of troops from all races in the British Isles, but of Aus- tralians, New Zealanders, French, Italians, Egyptians, Armenians, Sudanese. Sikhs, Gurkhas, Pathans, Chris- tian Raratongans, West Indians, — a veritable army of the nations. And it did not escape the comment of the ' Isaias 6i : i, 3. THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 5 world that among the victorious troops was a Jewish legion. Jerusalem and all the suffering provinces to the north vied with one another in welcoming their deliverers from the oppression of Ottoman rule. The Collapse of Turkish Power When young King David led his army against the stronghold of Zion to take it from the Jebusites, they taunted him with the saying, " Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither; thinking David cannot come in hither." ^ But the ingenuity of that gifted leader devised a way to over- come even the defenses of Zion. In similar phrase it was commonly said in these days, " Until the waters of the Nile flow into Jerusalem, the city cannot be taken from the Turks." Considering the miles of intervening desert this was a proverbial way of stat- ing the impossible. It was the overcoming of such difficulties as this that made General Allenby's campaign one of the features of the war. He built a transport railway from Egypt to Syria. He brought a pipe-line of Nile water across the desert. By laying down heavy wire- mesh netting over the desert lands, he quickly con- structed a wonderful highway for automobiles. He defeated a carefully chosen, strongly intrenched Turk- ish army aided by German and Austrian artillery and engineers and directed by a German field marshal. * 2 Samuel 5, 6. <6 THE NEAR EAST He delivered a city and freed a land toward which all Christendom has turned its eyes with love and longing for nearly two thousand years. He opened the way for the reestablishment of the Jewish people in their ancient home, and he saved from destruction one of the fairest provinces known to history. In conjunc- tion with the campaign in Mesopotamia, General Allenby struck the death blow to the Turkish Empire and to German dreams in the East. For more than a hundred years Great Britain had been the main support of the Ottoman Empire. In the days of the Crimea and again in 1878, it was the British who were chiefly instrumental in turning aside the Russian forces from control of the Bosphorus. When Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt wrested Syria from the Turkish grasp, it was Britain that caused Egypt to relinquish her prize. When the great Napoleon in- vaded the East, it was the British Nelson who destroyed his fleet and cut off supplies and retreat. It was a strange turn of history, therefore, which brought about a situation that led to the overthrow of the Turkish military power by an army composed almost entirely of units drawn from the British Empire. Egypt in the War Strategy The new postage stamps issued for Syria and Palestine are marked E. E. P., " Egyptian Expedi- tionary Forces." They are printed in Arabic and ^'alued in Egyptian piastres. This is a graphic illus- THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 7 tration of the part which Egypt played in the war in the Near East. One of the first movements of the Turkish troops was an expedition against the Suez Canal to block the road to India and, if possible, to sow seeds of dissen- sion in Eg}^t. This was instigated by Germany and was one of her strategic movements. When D'jcnial Pasha set out from Constantinople as commander of this expedition to the south, he was given a great ovation as the one who should redeem for Turkey her lost province of the Nile.^ Turkish forces did actually cross the desert and reach the Canal, but with terrible suffering and loss. This fact, however, dem- onstrated that the desert was not an insuperable bar- rier, and that the defense of the Canal must be moved farther to the north. Then began the British advance into Palestine. Egypt was made a military base from the very be- ginning of the war. Troops were brought there for training. The Dardanelles expedition was largely fitted out from Egypt, and the whole of the Palestine campaign was supported from this Egyptian base. Thousands of Egyptian laborers were employed in the construction of the railway, highway, and water-pipe line into Palestine. At the beginning of the war Great Britain an- nounced a formal protectorate over Egypt, dethroned the Khedive, who was known to be favorable to Turkey, and appointed his uncle, Hussein, in his * Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Chapter XV. 8 THE NEAR EAST place. Thus Egypt became an integral part of the British Empire and throughout the war did her share in bringing about victory. The Development of Modern Egypt The development of Egypt in recent years is one of the fascinating stories of national progress. To the popular mind the land of Egypt is of interest chiefly because of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the slavery of the Hebrew people. It is a land of an- tiquity, recorded in hieroglyphics on granite temples and obelisks. That there is a modern Egypt with its acute problems which tax the best statesmanship of Europe; that there is a Nile valley where marvels of engineering skill have been worked out; that there are great cotton fields ranking among the very first in the world, and corn lands which rival those of our Mississippi valley — of these facts very few Americans are aware. Yet Egypt, commanding the route to India •and Australia, lies at the center of the British Empire •and is, perhaps, the very keystone which keeps the im- perial arch from falling. With the improvements in the country, with com- mercial prosperity, and an increase in the number of schools and higher institutions of learning, there has grown up a large group of men of independent thought and of national aspirations. While they hawe •enjoyed the prosperity brought by British administra- tion and have realized that the country has probably THE WORLD WAR IN THE x\EAR EAST 9 been in much better indusWial and commercial condi- tion than it would, had it remained under purely Egyptian control, still they have wished to know why the British forces have not been withdrawn according to promise. They have argued that, after a whole generation of leadership and instruction, they are abundantly able to manage their own affairs. From time to time British statesmen have made it clear, however, that they do not intend to withdraw from the country. When Theodore Roosevelt visited Egypt, and again on his visit to England, he told the British plainly that " they should either rule Egypt or get out." The British decided to rule. The significance and extent of the nationalistic movements which have developed in opposition to this policy in the period following the war are referred to in another chapter. Mesopotamia and the Persian Frontier Just before the war the British Government gained a large interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This was located north from the head of the Persian Gulf, and near the summer residence of the old Persian monarchs — in the city of Shushan of Bible times. The oil of these wells was brought in a pipe- line along the Persian border to the Gulf, and the chiefs of the Bakhtiyari were paid to protect it. With the closing of the Dardanelles and the consequent loss of access to the oil supplies of Roumania and Russia, 10 THE NEAR EAST these Persian wells became of the utmost importance to Great Britain. Consequently, under the direction of the Government of India, a British force was sent to occupy Basra and to protect the Persian frontier. From the beginning of the war Persia was filled with German and Turkish agents who were using every endeavor to persuade the people to take sides with the Central Powers. By arousing their Moslem coreligionists and by appealing to Persian antagonism to Russia and England, they sought to indirectly inflame India. Little is yet reported of the terrible contest that raged in Persia during these months, or of the influence of America in holding that country neutral. It was not so much America's direct diplo- matic efiforts, as the spirit of gratitude, that finally won : Persia's memory of what Shuster had tried to do for her before the war, and, through the Near East Relief, America's gift of bread to Persia's starv- ing thousands was the potent factor. The tragic failure of the Allies to force a passage of the Dardanelles was accompanied by a Turkish victory below Baghdad at Kut-el-Amara. These two victories gave the Allied cause in the Near East a terrible blow. The people who had hoped so much began to feel that Great Britain was not invincible. Subject races in Turkey almost despaired; and the rul- ing Turks became at once more overbearing than ever. Then came General Maude and a new order of things for Mesopotamia. After careful preparation, the British rapidly advanced, capturing Baghdad, and THE WORLD WAR IN THE A'EAR EAST 11 sweeping the Turkish armies before them as far as Mosul. At this critical time a great misfortune bcfcl them in the loss of their gifted leader, General Maude, who died from cholera. But the greater part of Mesopotamia had been won, and the campaign was ably carried on to a victorious conclusion by General Marshall. At once work was begun for the develop- ment of the wonderful agricultural resources of these fertile plains. Old irrigation canals were cleaned out. swamps were drained, and it is said that more grain was produced in the year following than in any period since the days of the Caliphate of Baghdad. The development of these ancient river valleys has been of untold blessing to the people of this region and to thousands of refugees. This natural garden spot of the world, which under Turkish neglect had become a desert, is once more producing food and cotton. The possibilities of the great district cannot be over-estimated. It has the fertility of Egypt with five times the area. The victories of General Maude and his British and Indian troops have restored to civilization this ancient world granary. While one Turkish army was being defeated in the south, another was operating to the northeast towards Persia and the Caucasus. At an earlier period of the war a Russian army advanced from the Caucasus well beyond the boundaries of eastern Turkey, but later it was forced to withdraw. With the weakening of Russian military power, Turkish troops not only crossed into the Russian Caucasus, but also over the 12 THE NEAR EAST boundaries into Persia. Again and again the Turkish army was sent forward, sometimes drawing perilously near the goal of the great pipe-line from the Caspian oil-fields, only to be driven off again. Then came the complete collapse of Russia, and all the gain to the Allies in the northeast was lost. Turks and Germans moved on; rich copper deposits and oil-wells were within their grasp. Small forces of British troops were sent through -western Persia to protect the crowds of refugees flee- ing from the wild looting and massacre being carried on by the Kurds. One of the most romantic adven- tures of the war was the perilous march of a small body of British troops from the Baghdad area across Persia to the Caspian, and their voyage on to Baku where they tried to strengthen the resistance of Armenian troops to the Turkish advance. Persia the Neutral Weakened by inefficiency and corruption within and checked in her development by the jealousies of pow- erful neighbors without, Persia had practically ceased to exist as an independent state even before the out- break of the great war. If the country was lagging then, her condition following the war is pitiable. Such a remnant of government as existed at the beginning of hostilities declared a formal neutrality; yet all of western Persia soon became a battlefield. Slaughter and famine visited their horrors upon her as well as THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 13 upon her neighbors who entered definitely into the strife. The recent history of Persia is a record of helpless drifting toward loss of sovereignty and national vigor. There was a moment of hope when, in 1905, a reform movement drew to it the attention of the outside world. In protest against the tyrannical methods of the Shah, fifteen thousand of the leading citizens of Teheran left the city and refused to return unless a constitution were granted. In 1906 the Shah was re- ported dethroned and a parliament established. A period of turmoil followed, and anarchy prevailed throughout the country. At last the aid of America was sought by the distracted leaders. On the advice of President Taft, William M. Shuster was appointed to reorganize the financial and other departments of government. It soon became apparent, however, that powerful interests from without had assumed direction of Per- sia's affairs. In 1907 Russia and Great Britain signed a pact for the peace of Persia directly against the protestations of the Persian parliament. As a result of these diplomatic exchanges two spheres of influ- ence were marked out in Persia, the northern Russian and the southern British. These governments pro- ceeded to force the resignation of J\Ir. Shuster and later that of his Belgian successor, and Persia became virtually a protectorate under their control. The outbreak of the war found this country in a backward condition and little affected by the progres- 14 THE NEAR EAST sive movements operating in other Oriental lands. In spite of the fact that its territory is nearly half as large again as that of all of the states on the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida, and that its popula- tion is about ten million, Persia has only six miles of railway, apart from a Russian railway connection with Tabriz; and there are only two hundred post-offices in the land. Garrisons of Russian troops in the north maintained order, but when they were forced to withdraw for a time, early in the war, massacres broke out in the west. The Kurds from the Turkish border fell upon the defenseless Christians of Urumia, and thousands of those who escaped lived for months under the protec- tion of the American flag in the mission compound. Later the Russians returned, and the disturbances were quieted ; but on the final evacuation by the demoralized Russian army, both Turks and Kurds advanced across the border. Tabriz w^as occupied, the American mis- sion buildings plundered, and the American mission- aries were kept for weeks in prison. For four years western Persia has been a scene of carnage and out- rage committed by roving bands and by regular troops. The nation emerges from the war period with needs as desperate as those found in lands that were among the formal belligerents. The Kingdom of the Hedjaz Another phase of the war development in the Near East remains to be noted. The Arabs of Arabia have Harris & Ewing One of the most picturesque characters at the Peace Confer- ence in Paris was Prince Feisal, son of the king of the Hedjaz. Syria has recently declared for independence and for Feisal as King THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 15 never been satisfied with a Turkish Cahph. They have looked upon the Suhan of Turkey as a usurper of religious authority which naturally belongs to the Arab people among whom Mohammed himself lived. All of the early Caliphs were either relatives or friends of Mohammed and were pure Arabs. Turkey, how- ever, has never had more than a nominal political control over the various cities and districts of Arabia, and it was for the purpose of strengthening this hold that she built the railway from Damascus to Medina. The funds for the construction of this railway were gathered from pilgrims to the Holy Shrines, and it was advertised as being constructed to aid the pil- grimages to Mecca. So, under cover of religion, the Turkish Government was able to build what was really a military road; but even this has not materially strengthened her control in Arabia. At the outbreak of war the Sherif of Mecca, one of the highest of Mohammedan officials, a man of pure Arab blood and belonging to the family which has religious control of the Shrine at Mecca, proclaimed his independence of Turkey and established, under English patronage, " The Kingdom of the Hedjaz." Numerous Arab tribes gathered around him and his dashing son Emir Feisal, who heads the developing nationalistic movement among the Arabs in Syria. Operating with forces from Egypt, they contributed valuable assistance in the overthrow of the Turkish army. The rallying of these wild desert tribes brought 16 THE NEAR EAST to the notice of the world one of the romantic figures of the war. A shrinking, soft-spoken young English- man, Thomas Lawrence, who had been living among the desert Arabs for years studying archaeology, had so completely adapted himself to their life and had so won their confidence that he was able to unite them and lead them against the Turks. The " matinee idol of Arabia," who seemed equally at home in an aero- plane flying abashed from public honors tendered him in Cairo, or upon a swift camel leading an attack of Bedouin tribesmen, will remain one of the most pic- turesque heroes of modern history.^ It is doubtful whether the new government which the Arabs are forming is founded upon principles which are sufficiently progressive to give hope for stability and growth. But it is interesting to speculate as to the effect of the rise of a strong Mohammedan, Arab kingdom adjacent to Syria and Africa, espe- cially with Egypt restored to political vitality. Turkey at War In order to understand the causes which involved . in this conflict nation after nation and tribe after tribe of the Near East, it is necessary to know the story of Turkey's entrance into the war. When the Turkish Government permitted the two German cruisers, the Goeben and the Breslau, to pass through the Dardanelles, she virtually declared her * See Asia for September and October, 19 19. THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 17 alliance with Germany. While the Turkish minister of marine sat in his club playing cards, a German admiral was sending Turkish torpedo boats to sink a Russian ship and bombard a Russian port in the Black Sea/ This meant that Turkey had involved herself in the war, against the preference of the ma- jority of her people and contrary to the protests of many of her cabinet ministers and her Grand X'izier. Abundant warnings had been given that if she entered on such a course, she signed her own death sentence and must expect no mercy when the peace terms should be written.^ Under the " Young Turks " Not far from the railway station in the ancient city of Damascus there stood a somewhat pretentious, rather European-looking house. The chance tourist who passed gave it merely a glance and possibly won- dered why all the street windows were carefully boarded and why a Turkish soldier stood guard by the door. Probably he did not give the house another thought until, one day, his guide, pointing guardedly in that direction, grasped his arm confidentially and in subdued tones told him that twenty years before, a Turkish Pasha, who was too much interested in the progressive policies of Europe, had one day arrived from Constantinople and taken up his abode there ; that he walked in the garden behind the high wall but * Ambassador Morzenthau's Story, page 125. 2 London Times editorials. Autumn of 19 14. 18 THE NEAR EAST could hold no communication with the street, and a guard was always stationed at his door. To the tourist the house thereafter assumed a new importance ; before his eyes he beheld a part of the much-talked-of spy systerh of Turkey, for here resided in solitude one of the exiles from the capital. The Sultan Abdul Hamid and his far-reaching system of secret service and sudden exile became a reality. What mysteries resided behind those boarded win- dows! Possibly, too, what cruelties! And what of the mental agony of the victim ! On the 24th of July, 1908, the streets and public squares of every city, village, and town in the Ottoman Empire were thronged with a deliriously happy crowd ; Christian priests and Moslem imams embraced and kissed each other; at almost every corner orators and poets were giving expression to their exuberance of joy in extravagant prophecies of enduring brother- hood and emphatic assertions of patriotic loyalty to the " Fatherland." This demonstration was owing to the fact that, after thirty years of the most absolute and tyrannical gov- ernment, the Sultan, at the command of a party of progress and reform, had proclaimed a constitutional form of government. In 1876 a constitution had been established, but it was withdrawn two years later. This old constitution was now taken from its hiding- place and officially proclaimed by the most solemn ceremonies as the law of the land. This radical change had been brought about by the THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 19 so-called " party of Young Turks " operating through what came to be known as the " Committee of Union and Progress." They proclaimed as their motto, " Liberty, Justice, Equality. Fraternity." It had been a bloodless revolution, and was acclaimed throughout the world as one of the most astounding of historical events. On all sides it was believed that a new day had dawned for Turkey; that the problem of the Near East had solved itself ; that the plague-spot of Europe had been suddenly and miraculously cleansed. For- eign students of Turkish politics were practically unanimous in their expression of satisfaction that this change had come from within the empire itself, and that a day of hope had dawned over the troubled lands of the East. In due course of time a parliament was chosen, a cabinet formed, and the wheels of the new machinery set revolving. The first sessions of this new legisla- tive assembly were models of dignity and decorum. Visitors at their sittings reported that they formed a striking contrast to many of the parliaments of the Western lands in the seriousness with which each member devoted himself to the business in hand. Turkey's Triumvirate Events of national and even world-wide importance followed in rapid succession. The five years following 1908 witnessed the dethronement of " the great assassin," Abdul Hamid, and the binding of the 20 THE NEAR EAST sword of Othman, the sign of sovereignty upon his brother Mohammed V, who for thirty years had been kept a prisoner in his palace for no other reason than that he was heir to the throne. There were plots, counterplots, intrigues, and assassinations until at last three men, the great " war triumvirate " of Turkey, backed by a secret committee of thirty or forty men, arose to power. The pathway which brought these three men, Enver, Talaat, and D'jemal to the head of affairs was marked by many unscrupulous political adventures and acts of violence. Enver had been the hero of the Young Turk revolution. At the outset he was very probably ani- mated by a true desire to see the old reactionary order give place to a new, progressive government. As an army officer his training had been largely German, and he admired the Teuton power and efficiency. But per- sonal ambition tempted his abilities, and he rapidly rose by fair means and by foul to the first place in the Empire. His two associates had not passed through as dramatic a career, yet their rise to power had been almost as rapid, and they had come an equal distance. Talaat rose from a position as mail-carrier and telegraph operator to Grand Vizier of the realm. He had no particular training, but through sheer energy and dominating force, such force as often pro- duces the untrained political boss of American cities, he forged to the very front. D'jemal probably had more education than his confreres. His training had been French, and he is reported, during the war, to THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 21 have stated that he loved the French and respected the British. All three of these men had ability, combined with unbounded ambition, overweening conceit, and love of flattery. Except possibly Enver, they had no personal affection for Germany. But in alliance with Germany they seemed to see the surest road to the success which they coveted. Undoubtedly these men were moved by a certain kind of patriotism. They were anxious for Turkey to progress, they advocated a " Pan-Turanian- ism " or " all Turk " union, and they saw pretty clearly many of the disabilities under which their country- labored. Where, then, did they make their mistake and how did they plunge their country into ruin? Together with the violent means by which they had raised them- selves to power and the disregard which they had shown for the rights and welfare of the various peoples of the land, what were the elements, present or lacking, that at length produced the break-up of the Turkish Empire? Foreign Influences During the sixteenth century the Turkish Empire gained its widest area, extending from the borders of Austria to Persia, from the Black Sea and the Cau- casus to the deserts of Africa. At this time the SuUan of Turkey ruled over an empire 2,000,000 square miles in extent, containing a population of 50,000,000 peoples speaking a score of different Ian- 22 THE NEAR EAST guages and dialects. Since then her borders have been constantly contracting: Hungary, the Balkan States, southern Russia, the Barbary coast, Cyprus, and Egypt have one by one slipped from her posses- sion. As the Turkish Empire has gradually weakened and given increasing signs of final dissolution, and as the territorial ambitions of the great powers of Europe have developed, the interest and influence of foreign governments in the Near East have been extended. Before the war, if^one were buying stamps or mail- ing a letter in Constantinople or Jerusalem or, in fact, in any of the larger cities along the Turkish coast, one had the choice of six post-offices of as many nationali- ties. And not infrequently when there were many stamps to buy, the clever purchaser could bid one ofiice against another and secure a substantial rebate in the price of stamps. This right to operate post-offices was but one of the many privileges conceded to foreigners residing within the Empire. Under these " Concessions " or " Capitu- lations " all foreigners, whether merchant, missionary, or pilgrim, were granted permission freely to enter and travel in Moslem territory " whether for devotion and pilgrimage to the holy places or for trading in the exportation or importation of every kind of unpro- hibited goods." There were also certain rights con- ceded regarding holding property and consular trial in criminal and civil cases between foreigners. The first of these " Concessions " dates back many years, back THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 23 to the days when arrangements had to be made for the Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Then, too, the Moslem conquerors looked upon foreigners as guests of the Empire, and with a spirit of Eastern hos- pitality, extended to them these special rights. Later on the European powers exacted an extension of these privileges for the fuller protection of their citizens. And so, by the beginning of the war, there had grown up an extensive body of " Capitulations " benefiting and protecting and granting extra-territorial rights to foreigners.^ Because the Suez Canal is the route to India, Great Britain established herself in Egypt. Because Russia threatened to overrun Persia and encroach upon India, the British must needs exercise a controlling influence in southern Persia and the Persian Gulf. Because all her northern ports were ice-bound for half the year, and her only outlet to the south was through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which were dominated by Constantinople, Russia planned and intrigued and fought for the possession of that city and its adjacent territory. France, Italy, and Greece each marked out for themselves colonies in Syria and Asia Minor which they wanted when the day of division should come. And Germany and Austria, conceiving their great strategy of a central empire from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf, became profoundly interested in playing the diplomatic game at the Sublime Porte. Each nation had already secured in one or more of 1 Daybreak in Turkey, Chapter XXIII. 24 THE NEAR EAST these Eastern lands some special commercial right, some railway, harbor, or mining concession, and each had, little by little, fixed its hold on the particular territory which to it seemed especially desirable. The Break-up of the Near East Out of this jumble of foreign influence and exploita- tion, of military campaigns, border warfare, and de- portations there has emerged the long expected break- ing up of the Near East. For more than four hun- dred years Turkey has been the dominating power in the Levant, and for a century she has been a center of contention to the rival nations of Europe. Now that power is gone, and the question is fairly before the world : What just and lasting disposition will you make of these lands and their people? A statement of the attempts that began, with the closing of the great war, to restore order and pros- perity in the Near East must be reserved for a later chapter. Here we can note only the fundamental nature of the changes that have forced themselves upon nations whose civilizations we are accustomed to think of as unchanging. The outside world has crossed the mountain ram- parts and entered abruptly into the lives of the peo- ple. The old order has passed, whether they will or no. The watchwords can no longer be " bukra " (to-morrow) and " ma-lesh " (never mind), but must be " to-day " and " do it now." It is not mere political THE WORLD WAR IN THE NEAR EAST 25 readjustments that are demanded. The deepest springs of human life have been touched in the play of the great forces that have been at work in recent years. The religious thought of the people has been profoundly influenced, and with it the whole body of social custom and civil life. Islam itself presents a new aspect to a world that had come to think of it as a political and religious system drawing intense loyalty from all who acknowl- edged its sway, and carrying on successfully a pro- gram of advance into distant fields. It was an occa- sion of universal surprise and of deepened interest in Mohammedan affairs when, on November 13, 1914, the Sultan of Turkey, Caliph of Islam, unfurled the green banner and, with the most sacred ceremonies, proclaimed the " Jehad," or " Holy War " against all " infidels," only to find that his proclamation was almost universally unheeded by the Moslems of other lands. Religion and political power have ever gone hand in hand in the spread of Mohammedanism. This new situation raises everywhere the questions : Are disintegrating influences at work in the body of Islam, and what is their significance in the various countries where Mohammedanism has its followers? The Needs of the New Day Political domination has failed to bring peace, unity, and progress to the peoples of the Near East. What new approach must statesmen find? What answer is 26 THE NEAR EAST the Christian world prepared to give? Can it point the way to the practical application of a higher states- manship based on the only principles sufficient for the days ahead — the ancient and eternal principles of Him who walked these hills that have been scarred anew by war? For a century Christian missions have been laying a broad foundation in these lands. The missionaries and the new churches have gained the confidence of the people. They have exercised a wide influence in training leaders. Now in the day of the greatest need the way is open as never before. II THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS CHAPTER TWO THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS TIKE a great corner-stone stands Mount Ararat at ■*-^ the cross-roads of three nations, lifting its snow- capped summit, an almost perfect cone, fourteen thousand feet above the surrounding plain. The Per- sians call this mountain, Kur-i-Nuh, which means " the Mountain of Noah," for here, tradition says is the site whence Noah and his family replenished the earth. The Garden of Eden was also somewhere in this region to the south where four mighty rivers have their sources. Whether history substantiates the stories of tradi- tion or not, the fact still remains that the region over- shadowed by this great mountain and adjacent terri- tories has been throughout all history the home of the early races of mankind. Many of these ancient peo- ples, who are figuring in history at the present time, are still found in their original homes. From the Black Sea on the north to the great deserts of Africa and Arabia on the south, from the Caspian Sea and Persia on the east to the Mediterranean and 29 30 THE NEAR EAST ^gean seas on the west, there is a wide stretch of lofty mountains, plateaus, river valleys, plains, and deserts where great nations have risen and fallen, and where the foundations of civilization and human liber- ties have been wrought out. Governments have passed away; great emperors who once ruled from magnifi- cent capitals now covered by desert sands are but names on the pages of history; but the people remain, holding tenaciously to the lands that have descended to them through long inheritance and living much as lived their ancestors in those days of old. A Patchwork of Peoples In order that we may study intelligently the ques- tions of the Near East, it is essential that we make the acquaintance of its peoples. This is not an easy task, because so many different groups are mingled in its population. But in proportion to the complexity of the life is the fascination of its study, probably no part of the world affording a greater number of inter- ests and problems. In any large community in the Near East to-day it is as in the day of Pentecost when there were dwelling in Jerusalem " men from every nation under heaven." The Turks Enver Pasha, one of the leaders of the Young Turks, said in 1908, " We are all brothers. There are no longer in Turkey Bulgarians, Greeks, Servians, THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 31 Roumanians, Mussulmans, Jews. Under the same blue sky we are all proud to be Ottomans." Hcnry Morgenthau, in commenting upon this, wrote : " That statement represented the Young Turk ideal for the new Turkish state, but it was an ideal which was evi- dently beyond their ability to translate into a reality. The races which had been maltreated and massacred for centuries by the Turks could not transform them- selves over night into brothers, and the hatreds, jealousies, and religious prejudices of the past still divided Turkey into a medley of warring clans." Not all the people who live within the Turkish Em- pire should be called " Turks." The people to whom the name " Turk " may be strictly applied, have lived in the land for a shorter period than have any other group. As compared with the other races they are really newcomers, for they pushed their way out from the plains of Turkestan not more than eight or nine centuries ago. Just at the time when William the Conqueror was leading his Norman army for the conquest of England, the Turks overspread Asia Minor and threatened eastern Europe.'- Before the present war they numbered about six millions, living mostly in the central and western por- tion of the peninsula of Asia Minor. They are Mon- golian in race and are of the same stock as the Turkomans who live to the east of the Caspian Sea. They are Mohammedan in religion, are densely ig- norant and hence fanatical. There is no comparison ^ The Riddle of Nearer Asia, pages 1 16-120. Z2 THE NEAR EAST between them and their Christian neighbors in pro- gressive abihty and initiative. The domination of the Turks has been a miHtary one. They are fierce warriors and loyal to their leaders, blindly following and trusting. Even in this great war they have proved themselves, when well led and armed, the equal of any soldier in the world. Though capable of the most cruel atrocities when their religious or racial fanaticism is aroused, yet as regular soldiers they have shown themselves both good warriors and clean fighters. The British troops came to respect their Turkish antagonists, among whom they found far more of the ancient chivalry of war than among their " Christian " opponents on the West- ern front. While the popular mind thinks first of the Turks as soldiers and as continually engaged in some uprising for massacre or loot, it is hardly fair to make such a generalization. For the greater part they are peasants, living a quiet pastoral and agricultural life. As a rule they are not clever as merchants, and even on their farms they do not equal in thrift and enterprise the Greek and Armenian peasants. Physically the Turks are deficient in comparison with the Christian peoples about them. Accurate sta- tistics are lacking, but it seems that they are not in- creasing greatly in numbers. In contrast to their neighbors, small families are the rule; usually there are not more than two or at most three children. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATION'S 3i Americans who have lived among them admit freely that the educated class is corrupt; but they find the common peasant kindly, lovable, and comparatively honest. One has but to travel through the country to learn the truth of the phrase, " Oriental courtesy," for both the Turkish peasant and his Christian neighbor show a noticeable hospitality to the wayfarer. Except on occasion when his religious leaders drive him to outrage, he is friendly and well inclined toward Chris- tians. The statement that the Turk as a whole is far better than his government is so admittedly true that one should carefully distinguish between the mass of Turkish people and the official class who constitute the government. This distinction can justly be made in fairness and without attempting to whitewash the common Turk. The Armeniatis A half century before Constantine beheld the vision of the cross and inscribed it on his banner as the sign by which he proposed to conquer; at a time when the Roman emperors were making every effort by fire and sword to stamp out this sect of the Nazarenes; at a time when to be baptized was a stigma and to perse- cute was the fashion; at such a time the early Church was thrilled with the news that the king of a great and ancient nation had doffed his crown while a Chris- tian bishop administered the rite of baptism. It was Tiridates, king of Armenia who, in the latter part of 34 THE NEAR EAST the third century, accepted the new religion. His example was followed by nearly all of his people, and thereby they became the first nation to adopt Chris- tianity. Born to the faith in the days of the early martyrs, these people have for sixteen centuries, one generation after another, bought their faith at the price of a martyr's crown. The Armenians are a nation of great antiquity, for their names are mentioned on the Assyrian monu- ments. Tradition traces their ancestry directly back to Noah through Japheth and claims that their lan- guage was the one spoken in the Ark, It was not until 15 14 that Armenia was included in the Ottoman Empire, where it has remained throughout these past four hundred years. The kingdom of Armenia extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black and Caspian seas and the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. At the beginning of the war, the Armenians in the Turkish Empire numbered about two millions. There are as many more living in the adjacent territories of Russia and Persia, and nearly half a million have found homes in America and Europe. The Armenian Na- tional Committee claim that the new Armenia will have a population of over three millions in spite of the fact that one million or more have perished during the war. Of all the peoples of the Near East the Armenians have shown themselves most tenacious of their na- THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 35 tional traditions and vigorous in their endeavors to make for themselves a place in the world. They have maintained their own system of schools, have souj^dit higher education wherever possible, and have in many ways demonstrated their enterprise and ability to progress. Many of their men have occupied high posi- tions in the Turkish government and have contributed no little share to whatever constructive work has been accomplished by the Ottoman Empire. They have perseveringly held to their Christian profession in spite of repeated persecutions and mas- sacres and have exhibited the greatest fortitude and constancy. Yet the Armenian has an unpleasantly combative self-assertiveness of character that renders it difficult for him to cooperate with others. Very possibly this has largely contributed to producing his lifelong tragedy. But when one thinks of the peculiarities of the Armenian character, of a certain unreliability and quarrelsomeness, one must remember the circum- stances under which he has lived. ^ For centuries he has endured repression and cruelty both from rulers and from the class in power. To exist under the in- human conditions which have prevailed, there has grown up among the people a system of intrigue and deceit which has seemed to become a part of their individual characteristics. With the necessity for lying taken away, however, the people are found to be no less honest and trustworthy than others. ^ The Riddle of Nearer Asia, page 125; Daybreak in Turkey, Chapter VI. 36 THE NEAR EAST The Greeks Where the Dardanelles empty the waters of the Black Sea into the ^gean, here lie the plains of Troy. Here Agamemnon stormed the city walls, and the stories of Priam, Achilles, and Hector were enacted. Along these Asia Minor coasts the tales of Perseus, Andromeda, Jason, Adonis, and Daphne become real. This is the home of the ancient Greeks, and through- out the changing centuries they have remained the chief inhabitants of the coast lands of Asia Minor and the islands of the sea. Smyrna is practically a Greek city, and at least one third of the people of Con- stantinople are Greeks. Before the war there were not less than a million Greeks in this part of the Near East, and many Greek villages are to be found in the interior. While they are chiefly engaged in commerce, fol- lowing the traditions of their ancestors, many of the Greeks are farmers and fruit growers. In the book of Revelation there are recorded brief letters which were written by the Apostle John to the seven churches of western Asia Minor. In the light of recent events affecting so profoundly the lives of the Christian peoples of this region, these letters are of renewed interest, for the seven churches were the forerunners of the great Greek Orthodox Church which is now predominant in eastern Europe and western Asia. Chrj^sostom, the golden-tongued orator of Antioch, v/ho afterwards became Bishop of Con- THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 37 stantinople, and many another famous ecclesiastic and theologian grew up in these Greek churches. The Greeks of to-day are direct descendants in lan- guage, customs, and religion of the Greeks of the early Church and of ancient history. Like the Armenians, they have maintained their own system of schools and have established many g>'mnasiums or schools for higher learning. They rank perhaps first of all the people of the Levant in the persistence with which they have supported schools for their children. A fairly high percentage of them possess a good educa- tion. In this, too, they follow the traditions of the ancient Greeks. During the war the Greeks suffered terribly from the persecutions of the Turks. The number that were deported from their homes to the interior of the country can probably never be definitely ascertained, but it is safe to say that it amounts to several hundred thousand. Cut off from all means of self-support, they have been reduced to beggary, and a large proportion of them have perished from exposure and from hunger. Politically their sympathies are entirely with Greece. Many of them hold Greek passports, and all of them look for the day when they shall become a part of Greater Greece. The Kurds When Richard of the Lion Heart lay in his royal pavilion in Palestine burning with fever, an Arab doctor, skilled in the treatment of Eastern diseases, 38 THE NEAR EAST entered the Crusader ranks under a flag of truce. Saladin, leader of the Saracens, had sent his own per- sonal physician to the relief of his enemy and compeer. This Saladin, about whom tradition has told so many tales of romance and chivalry, and whom history has recorded as one of the greatest of military leaders, belonged by race to the people who inhabit the uplands north of Mesopotamia, the Media of the days of King Cyrus, Kurdistan of to-day. Saladin was a full- blooded Kurd. When Xenophon with his 10,000 men made his famous march from Babylon to the sea, he encountered great opposition from the Caraduchi of the mountains. These hill tribes were the direct ancestors of the present-day Kurds. They are still a wild, nomadic people, many of them living in black hair-cloth tents, some in villages ruled over by a feudal lord who has his castle in some mountain fastness. They keep flocks and herds and to some extent till the soil. But their chief livelihood has been derived from robbing caravans and plundering the villages of their Armenian neighbors. All together, there are perhaps two millions of these Kurdish tribesmen dwelling in the eastern part of Asia Minor and in western Persia among the hills and mountains north of the Tigris River. Their language is Aryan, though with a very large mixture of Turanian and Semitic. In religion they are nominally Moslem, but they have never been loyal to their Mohammedan rulers. They THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 39 have been in constant revolt and have often maintained a semi-independence. Many elements of heathen wor- ship are still retained by them. Some of the tribes are " Yedzedi " or devil worshipers; among others, there are certain rehgious rites which resemble Chris- tian ceremonies, as, for example, the custom of administering bread dipped in wine to the kneeling worshiper. The Kurds are said to be a brave, virile race, pre- dominantly illiterate, but when brought into contact with education, they show a fair degree of intellectual ability. They are home-loving, frugal, and capable of enduring great hardship. They practise strict monogamy, and in the family life the women occupy an equal place with the men. Dr. T. N. Andrus, for many years a missionary in Mardin, Turkey, writes : " I admire the Kurd because I love him. He is more moral than either Turk or Arab. The Kurds have capacities which need only opportunity for right development to make them a sturdy people." Another American missionary writes, " The Kurds are noted for cruelty and violence. The reputation has been well earned. Toward his enemy he is frightful enough; but toward dependents and toward those who have entered the circle of friendship as guests, he is kind, generous, and faithful. During the recent Armenian atrocities they have, for the most part, treated the Armenians with kindness. They have helped thousands of them to escape from Turkey into Russia and even in their own poverty have fed many 40 THE NEAR EAST destitute Armenians, who otherwise would have starved." It is reported that one of the most interesting fields for missionary advance will be among these Kurdish tribes. Many of them already have a much higher regard for Christianity than for Mohammedanism, and if once they become imbued with the spirit of Christianity, they will make stalwart, energetic disciples. The Arabs Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad! How the mind con- jures up the tales of Arabian Nights and pictures long trains of camels and caravans with rich spices from Arabia, bearing their wares to the busy Syrian marts ! And these cities of Sindbad and Aladdin, of the Caliphs and Crusaders, are still great, thriving centers of trade. But while the bazaars and baths and mosques are still there, the flickering oil wicks are now replaced by steady electric lamps. Thus do the old and new contend and blend — even as, on occasion, the camel and the trolley-car in the crooked, narrow streets. When one moves south across the line of the Baghdad railway he leaves at once the mingled races of Turk, Armenian, Greek, and Kurd, of Indo- European, and Mongol, to encounter the true Semitic. The Arabs are as ancient in direct racial connec- tions as the Hebrews. They are an original Semitic stock numbering about one million of pure blood. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 4t While their home is the peninsula of Arabia, time and again they have swept over the neighboring ter- ritories of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt and have left a permanent impress of their stock upon these lands. In fact the great cities of the Arabic world are beyond the borders of Arabia. From the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Great Sea, from the Taurus Mountains to the Suez Canal, and on through Egypt and the Sudan one language prevails, the Arabic. While there are some local dif- ferences of pronunciation and colloquial vocabulary, the written language and the language of the schools is the same. It is interesting to note in passing that the Arabic is a sister of the Hebrew tongue, and the Aramaic, which was spoken in the days of Jesus, belongs to the same Semitic group. The Arabian people are naturally religious, and the story of how they have spread the religion of their prophet, Mohammed, is too familiar to need further emphasis. It is a narrative of zeal and intensity in religious effort that in some of its aspects is without parallel. A later chapter touches upon this again. They are aliens to the Turks, whom they regard as having usurped the title of Caliph, which they believe rightfully belongs to themselves. Because of their varied environment, the Arabs differ so greatly in customs that it is impossible to make other than contradictory statesments about them. For example, while the tribes of the desert are still 42 THE NEAR EAST nomadic, the Arabs of the towns have a large degree of culture. There is a rich literature in Arabic, and to-day it is the language of the scholar in lands far distant from its source. In the Dark Ages of Europe, Arabia was a dominating force in the world of learning, and Arabian mathematicians and scientists contributed much to modern civilization. The race is capable of great things and must be reckoned with in the reconstruction of the East. Arab influence in Africa is becoming so powerful an Islamic missionary force that it is a foe to progress. And yet this same virile strength of character directed toward Christian missionary work, would be as productive of widespread influence, which would include not only his own great nation, but whole masses in Asia and Africa.^ The Syrians Before the war, there were about three and one half millions of Syrians living in Syria and Upper Meso- potamia. They are a composite race, the foundation stock being chiefly Semitic. There have been inter- mixtures of Greek, Roman, and Crusader blood, but their language has remained Arabic. Intellectually, they rank very high, and they welcome every oppor- tunity for education. The Syrians are largely an agricultural people, and their peasants are exceedingly industrious, although » The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Chapter VI. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 43 they show little ingenuity in developing efficient methods. They have a decided aptitude for commerce and, like their Phoenician forebears, they travel to ail parts of the earth in pursuit of trade. About two thirds of the Syrians are Orthodox Mohammedans ; the other third are identified with tlie Eastern Christian churches of which the Greek Ortho- dox and Maronite are the strongest. The Jews Throughout the Near East there are probably one half or three fourths of a million Jews. In Palestine itself there are perhaps one hundred thousand; a large colony lives in the neighborhood of Baghdad, and many are found in Persia and Egypt. The great bulk of the Jewish race, however, are not in the old Hebrew fatherland, but are scattered throughout the world. Of course they all look with love and longing toward the city of Zion, and most of them dream of the day when they may at least visit the scene of their great national life. Yet it is very doubtful whether any large proportion of them will ever return to the hills of Judea. Students of prophecy watch every sign and indica- tion that will help to interpret the writings concerning this wonderful people. Sometimes these are treated with too great regard for fanciful interpretations, and sometimes the passages are too literally read. Yet all the world is concerned with the movements of this 44 THE NEAR EAST versatile race. Everywhere people are deeply inter- ested in what shall be the future of the land of Pales- tine. Tourists to the city of Jerusalem have visited on Priday afternoons the little narrow street known as " the Jews' wailing place." There they have seen rabbis and people kissing the ancient foundation stones of the old temple structure and, with heads devoutly bowed, reading their prophets and repeating their prayers, praying for the time when the temple will be restored to them. This is the nearest to the temple area that the Jews are ever permitted to come. The Moham- medan rulers grant the Christians permission to visit these sacred sites, but not the Jews. Within the last twenty years there has been a great increase in the number of Jews who have returned to Jerusalem and Palestine. Many agricultural colonies have been established by friends in Europe and America, but the success of these ventures has not been entirely satisfactory. The Jews to be found in the streets of Jerusalem do not inspire the enthusiasm of their co-religionists from this country. Bigoted, ignorant, unkempt, they are not such individuals as one would like to choose for the reestablishment of Zion. The majority of them have no business and are generally supported by gift funds from foreign coun- tries. For the most part they have gone to Jerusalem either to be supported by charity or, in the case of the older men and women, in order to die and be buried on sacred soil. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 45 Zionism has for its aim " to secure for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Pales- tine." ^ " Our whole program may be summed up in the phrase, a peaceful home and national center for Jews and Judaism." ^ These two quotations express briefly the purpose of the Zionist movement. In addi- tion, however, it does look forward to the establish- ment of a Jewish state either entirely independent or with a great degree of autonomy. The boundaries wdiich are proposed for this new state are : from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan River or the hills of Moab on the east; from the Litany River in the north (near the city of Tyre) to the Gulf of Akaba and the desert on the south. This district includes about io,ocx) square miles, a territory about as large as the state of New Jersey. Its popu- lation before the war was 700,000, of whom 500,00a were Arabic-speaking Mohammedans, 100,000 Chris- tions of various sects and nationalities, and 100,000 Jews. The Zionists claim that experts who have studied this territory believe that, with careful and scientific cultivation and proper development of its natural resources, it is capable of supporting a popula- tion of from five to six million people. There are in the world about thirteen million Jews, but it is not anticipated that all Hebrews will return to this land. It does, however, offer sufficient space for all who wish to seek a refuge and provides a land where this na- ' Proclamation of First Zionist Congress at Balse, i8g7- ' Dr. Sokoloff of the International Zionist Committee. 46 THE NEAR EAST tion can work out its own life and ideals along social, political, and religious lines. While the question of the reestablishment of a Jewish state in Palestine makes a strong sentimental appeal to all Bible students, and while shrewd states- men are hoping in this way to settle the Hebrew ques- tion in their home lands, and while parliaments and congresses have readily voted for this new state, is there not still another side to the question? One can be perfectly sure that fulfilment of prophecy will not run counter to simple Christian justice. What of the rights of the 600,000 Arabs and Christians already resident in this land, who have made their homes there for centuries? What of the sacred associations of the millions of followers of the two other faiths? The i dominating Turkish official is gone, but the common people remain. Is it beyond question the part of wis- dom and justice to give over this land to foreigners who will come from every country of Europe, and to transfer to their hands the unrestricted control of this sacred land and these people who are natives to the soil? Zionism avowedly proposes to change the language of the land. Is all this in accordance with the principles of self-determination? Let there be a welcome to Jewish immigration, for the land is in need of greater man power, but let the Jews come on equal rights with the people already in the land. Let there be a fair field and no favors under wisely determined supervision. Keystone View Company It is " the Jews' wailing place " — and Friday afternoon, wlicii they kiss the old foundation stones and pray that the temple may be restored to them THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 47 The Persians It was from the land of Persia that Nehemiah once set forth to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, that Vashti braved the king's displeasure to save her honor, and that Queen Esther begged for the lives of her people. Perhaps to most of us, our conception of Persia de- pends upon whether we look at the floor or the shelves of our library; it may mean to us the land of the beau- tiful Shiraz and Kermanshah rugs, or the land of Cyrus and Darius who dwell between the covers of a volume of history. But whether it is the historic or the modern Persia, of which we think, the nation is of the same root and stock as the people of Iran and Media, who maintained their separate national existence for more than a thou- sand years, who resisted mighty Rome for a full century. These are the people who have ever been famous for their arts and crafts, for the weaving of the most beautiful carpets in the world, and for exquisite pat- terns in lustre and enamel work in vases and jars. And with all this craftsmanship, there are practically no factories in Persia, for, as in other parts of the Near East, all work is individual and is done by hand in the home and private shop. The people of Persia are of two classes, the dwellers in tents and the dwellers in towns. One fifth of the entire population belong to the first class. Like the Arab Bedouins of the desert, they lead a nomadic life, 48 THE NEAR EAST wandering about over the steep hills and mountain sides with their flocks and herds. The people of the towns cultivate the fertile mountain valleys, raising delectable fruits and fragrant flowers, preparing vege- table dyes, spinning and weaving wool and mohair, and trading at home and abroad. In 636 the fierce Moslem leader Khalid, sent to the Persian court this astounding message : " By force or good-will you shall accept our law, and it shall be given you by men who lust after death as much as ye lust after life." ^ Quickly following this, the Arabs forced their faith upon the land and gained possession of the leather apron of Kavah the blacksmith, which as an ensign had led the Persians to battle for over a thou- sand years.^ At the present time nine tenths of all the population is Moslem. The old religion of Zoroaster lingers in some fastnesses, and there are a few hun- dred thousand Eastern Christians. Among these in western Persia are the Nestorians, one of the earliest of Christian sects, who have maintained themselves through long centuries of Moslem conquest. The Westerner on meeting the Persians has an in- stinctive racial feeling that here is some one a little more akin to him than the other peoples of the East. Is it a lost memory of kinship in the Aryan race? Or is it something in the fact that they " have never been in bondage to any man " that appeals ? Even though one may feel that possibly here is a race deteriorated, ' The Riddle of Nearer Asia, page 104. ' Story of the Nations, Persia. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 49 he also has the firm conviction that it is " good seed." The Egyptians From the land of the Nile tourists bring home snap- shots of white-gowned, dark-hued servants who move silently about the corridors of hotels; and they buy postal cards which show camels kneeling beside the Sphinx and Pyramids, and donkey boys who race the diminutive white asses through the streets of Cairo. They can almost reproduce for you the music of the creaking wheels that lift the water from irrigating ditches on to the thirsty fields, and they vividly de- scribe the mud-walled houses and toiling fellahin of the villages along the river. But the population of Egypt is not made up entirely of peasants, donkey boys, cameleers, and silent white- robed servants. There are three classes of population that deserve to be noted. First, there is a dominating official class composed of foreigners speaking a for- eign language and having the center of their interest, perhaps, in a foreign land. Until 1914 this official class was largely Turkish, for, until lost by the war, Egypt was nominally a part of the Turkish Empire. Since then it has become English. Lord Cromer, when speaking of the difficulties which confronted British administration, said of this official class: " No counter- part can be found to the special circumstances which have attended the work of Egyptian reform. In the first place, one alien race, the English, have had to guide and control a second alien race, the Turks, by so THE NEAR EAST whom they are disliked, in the government of a third race, the Egyptians. To these latter, both the para- mount races are to a certain extent unsympathetic. In the case of the Turks, the want of sympathy has been mitigated by habit, by a common religion, and by the use of a common language. In the case of the Eng- lish, it has been mitigated by the respect due to su- perior talents and by the benefits which have accrued to the population from British interference." The second class is that of the Arab Moslems who constitute four fifths of the entire population. Throughout history, conquering migrations of Arab people have settled in the valley of the Nile. The rich corn lands of the Delta have time and time again at- tracted the sons of Shem from their desert home, and they have usurped this fruitful inheritance of the chil- dren of Ham. Thirdly there are the Christian Copts, children of the ancient Egyptians. " These Copts are the direct descendants of the men who built the Pyramids and who, when the rest of the world was asleep, developed a civilization which has been the wonder of the ages." ^ They have suffered probably more persecution from the Mohammedans than any other Christian body ex- cept the Armenians. Here, then, we have the same racial problem that is met with in all the countries of the Near East, — a mixture of race blended with religion; but not re- ligion as we think of it in the West; it is religion that ^ The Lure of Africa, page 45. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 51 has become as much a part of the racial element as has complexion or language. Moslem Force in Time of War It was in the spring of 1917, in a coast city in Syria, that a building, once the property of the Sisters of Charity, was seized by the Turkish authorities and con- verted into a school for instruction in the making of rugs. There had been appointed as instructors in the art of rug-weaving perhaps twenty Armenian men, women, and children who had come from their homes in cen- tral Asia Minor, deported by order of the Government. They had lost their all — property, friends, families — and at last had been swept into this quiet refuge where they had shelter, food, and work. They were almost happy after the trials and sufferings which the past twelve months had brought them. All was going well with their industry; rugs were on the loom in the process of manufacture; designs were being worked out by those who had the skill; there was peace, quiet, and rest. Suddenly an ofificer in uniform visited the place. He called the people together and reminded them of the sufferings through which they had passed, and the rest which they had found. He told them that this and greater happiness would still be theirs provided they all became Mohammedans, and that he would call for their answer the following week. In case of refusal they would be sent on again over the mountains and into the desert. 52 THE NEAR EAST The littie group gathered together and talked the matter over. They had lost everything that life held dear; they had suffered terrible hardships they could not go through it all again. They decided that they would give a favorable answ^er to the officer when he returned. But the joy was gone out of their work, the peace went from their hearts, and the sun left their sky. The seven days were over, the officer was momen- tarily expected, the rug-weavers were gathered to- gether to present their answer, when a young man arose in their midst. " My friends," he said, " it is true we have lost everything that this world can give, but we have not yet lost our faith." When the officer arrived, with one accord the answer was returned, " No, we cannot change our faith." This group was last heard of somewhere southeast of Damascus. They were on their way to the desert. Deportations and Massacres The stories of Daniel and of the Maccabees thrill us because of the constancy of the captive Hebrews, burdened as they were with a tyrant's yoke. During the years of this great war these stories have been repeated over and over again in the lands of Asia Minor and of Syria. In the spring of 191 5 the Turkish Government deter- mined upon a pohcy of extermination. First, the Greeks were driven from the seacoast. Then the Ar- THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS S3 menians from the interior were deported from their homes ; the men and boys were cruelly massacred ; the women and children were marched over mountain and plain, — barefoot, ragged, hungry, and thirsty, — and along the way they were robbed, insulted, and outraged. Many fell by the wayside never to rise again; many threw themselves into the streams, unable longer to endure the hardships; and the sad remnant at last found refuge either across the Russian border in the Caucasus, in Persia, or on the great Syrian desert. At least two and one half millions of human beings, who had been Christians from the third century, were systematically driven from their homes and subjected to these outrages and massacre. More than one half of them perished by the way, and for what? Why should a government allow such persecutions for the destruction of its own people, and they the most pro- gressive, best educated, most industrious of its citi- zens? Was it the desire for national suicide? Was it religious fanaticism? Was it to make room for other people? No satisfactory and complete answer has ever been given. The persecution was undoubtedly political rather than religious, although the directors of it made use of the ignorant religious fanaticism of the common Turkish people and of the soldiery to carry out their terrible work. Perhaps they were jealous of the pros- perity of these Greeks and Armenians; perhaps they were afraid that their sympathies would lead them to open revolt against authority; perhaps in their zeal for 54 THE NEAR EAST an all-Turkish state they thought this the easiest method of ridding themselves of other races; perhaps it was to open the country to colonization by people from Central Europe. Probably it was a combina- tion of all these causes working together. But what- ever the reason, the fact remains none the less hideous and none the less criminal. These atrocities were typical of the whole history of Turkish control. Time and time again in the past, Turkish rulers have attempted to carry out an ex- termination of people whom they hated or feared, but never before has there been such a systematic, per- sistent, and thoroughgoing attempt as these recent massacres. The Minister of the Interior, Talaat Pasha, is said to have boasted that he had succeeded in doing in three months what Abdul Hamid failed to do in thirty years.^ Famine in the Land In a prosperous village in the Lebanon Mountains lived a master stone-cutter with his wife and five stalwart sons. For men of their trade work had ceased because, owing to war conditions, no building was being carried on. Food supplies were scarce and prices exorbitant. They had been forced to mortgage their land and even to sell their furniture. The army had taken their copper cooking utensils, and even the beds had been sold for food. A relief visitor came to what remained of this home. He had been forbid- ' Ambassador Margenthau's Story, page 342. THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 55 den to aid men — only women and children could be ministered to. The wife and mother, weak from dis- ease and stan^ation, he found lying on the floor, her body covered with ulcers. In another room, side by side on the floor, lay the master stone-cutter and three of his sons with limbs swelled, and in the last stages of starvation. Within a week five new-made graves marked the last resting place of these industrious vil- lagers. Through the inten^ention of the European powers, the Lebanon Mountains for fifty-five years enjoyed an autonomous government. It became the one green spot in Turkey. Taxes were low, industry was re- warded, prosperity reigned. A small native gen- darme kept the district in perfect safety. Women and children could travel alone and go on camping expedi- tions throughout the mountains without fear of moles- tation. Red-tile-roofed houses, splendid terraces cov- ered with vines, olive and fig trees, vegetable gardens, and groves of mulberries marked the prosperity that had come to this region. Then came war. The Christian governor was dis- missed; a Turkish governor took his place; all pack animals were commandeered; all food supplies were placed under orders of the governor; and this district which had never known want, which had been happy and prosperous became a charnal house. Some por- tions of it lost sixty per cent of the entire population from disease and starvation. And this change took place in the short term of two years. 56 THE NEAR EAST Who is Responsible f Turkish inefficiency and criminal indifference were the causes of the great famine that swept over Syria. Food there was in plenty, but no means of transporta- tion or system of distribution. While men and women and children stan-ed on the seacoast, food was being exported to Germany. With such evident incom- petence, how was it then possible to carry out so systematic and efficient a policy of destruction as prevailed in the deportation of the Greeks and Ar- menians? Former massacres, while starting vigor- ously, had never lasted for more than a few days — the government and the people easily wearied of bloodshed and loot. But this time the atrocities were pursued to the bitter end. The same hand that made the Turk- ish army more efficient than it had been for centuries must also have guided this policy of extermination and carried it through, not days, but months and years, with unrelenting persistence. The Conflict of Races This land of the Near East ,this region of original races, is a corner of the earth where people measure residence not by years but by centuries ; where the dawn of history records the life of the same races that are living there to-day. These races are as widely separated in national char- acteristics, language, and religious affiliations as are THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 57 those who come to America. From ever>' part of the world America gathers in her people, but they come as voluntary exiles from old homelands, resolved to make a new life and to become a new people. They face the future with hearts full of resolve and expccta- tation. But the Near East has a polyglot population of races who dwell in their own homeland, with the lifelong associations of their ancient customs alx)ut them. In their relations to each other they are domi- nated by memories of old rivalries, ancient feuds, former wrongs, and aggressions. They, too, approach a new day with eyes turned to the future, but always they look through glasses colored with the relation- ships of the past. It is a problem of original elements in original surroundings, of lives colored by past ex- periences both bitter and sweet, but mostly bitter. The Problem and Our Opportunity What contribution can we make to the solution of this problem? It can never be solved by helping to perpetuate the native and historic animosities, by fos- tering the self-interests that divide. It will come rather by bringing forward that which will arouse a common interest and demand a common enthusiasm. The Prophet of Mecca introduced that which, for a time, bound the warring races of Arabia into a united body. But, while it gave a common name, to which all still respond, it lacked that vital element that could sufficiently transform selfish human nature and bind 58 THE NEAR EAST every race into one permanent, common brotherhood. The problem for the Near East was nearly solved in the first three centuries through the fellowship of per- secution and sacrifice. Then the light was lost in a strife for personal preferment and in metaphysical controversy. The opportunity has now come anew when hearts are grateful for suffering relieved, when hands are outstretched for help in the grave hour of respon- sibility, when old relationships are broken down by the hammer-blows of war. It is not a time for proclaim- ing a church, there has been too much of that; but it is a time for proclaiming the cross. It is not an occasion for emphasizing a creed, creeds were first made by these very people; but it is a time for pre- senting a living Christ. in OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY CHAPTER THREE OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY ■pROM remote antiquity the Near East has l^een known as the home of religions. All of Egypt's ancient life centered about its conception of the gods and their relations to men. The people of Mesopo- tamia did nothing without first reading the message of the stars; and the Hebrew prophet Amos exclaimed, " Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he re- vealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets," To the Eastern mind it is inconceivable that any person should not have a connection with some religious body. As the child Jesus was taken to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord, so by some religious rite every child that is born in these lands is attached in his early infancy to his parents' religion. The naturally religious temperament of the people has resulted in a degree of political recognition of the religious affiliations of the individual which it is diffi- cult for the Western mind to appreciate. The whole population is classified according to religion, and gov- ernments depend much upon officially recognized lead- 6i 62 THE NEAR EAST €rs of the various religious groups for maintaining touch with the people. The patriarch, the priest, the mullah serve their communities not only as spiritual guides; they become their representatives in the nego- tiation of business that involves government action. Even the Protestant churches on establishing them- selves in the Near East found that they must designate for official purposes some member as " head of the faith." Because of this intimate relationship between religion and all other phases of life in the Near East, it is necessary to review briefly the outstanding char- acteristics of the different faiths. In the three great religious groups, the Jews, the Mohammedans, and the Christians, we recognize at once their common basis of monotheism and readily distinguish them from the faiths of other lands where the worship of idols and the placating of many spirits furnish the background of religious life. Our con- cern here is to study the influences of these great religions upon the daily life of their followers, to dis- tinguish the many sects which appear within the various groups, and to trace the new movements in religious thought which are running through the Near East to-day. The Jews To Bible students it is not necessary to record those things for which Judaism stood in ancient times, nor to discuss them in their modern phases. The Jew holds tenaciously to the faith of his fathers, with its restric- OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 63 tions and burden of religious regulations. The feasts and the fasts and the keeping of the Sabbath are rigorously obser\-ed. Religious life centers about the synagogue, where one may see Jewish tradition and custom carefully preserved and differing little from that of the days of the New Testament. It would sometimes seem that we forget that Chris- tianity came to us through the Jewish people; that Jesus of Nazareth was born a Jew, as were also his twelve disciples; and the great apostle to the Gentiles boasted of his Hebrew ancestry,^ It is a fact that the Jews have always received good treatment from the rulers of the Moslem lands — far better than from the government of the Christian na- tions of Europe. Although divided by the rivalries of bigoted sects, the Eastern Jews share in common an intense longing for the return to them of their shrines in the city of Jerusalem. They are still holding fast to the past and lamenting the glories departed, while straining their eyes to catch a glimpse of the coming of the " kingdom of God " in the person of the Messiah. The Mohammedans The history of the remarkable religious movement among the Arabs of the desert which developed into the religion of Islam is of intense interest. Recent studies have made familiar to wide circles of Western ^The Riddle of Nearer Asia, pages 43-31; Chapter VII. 64 THE NEAR EAST readers the fact of the extraordinary spread of this rehgion to the nations of northern and central Africa, of western Asia, and of eastern Europe. To speculate upon what might have been the result had Alohammed lived in the day when he could have been brought into contact v/ith St. Paul or Stephen or John of Damascus, excites one's curiosity.^ Had he found in Arabia and Palestine a purer type than ex- isted there at that time, might he not have become a great apostle of Jesus Christ to the tribes of the desert? The forms of faith which he did encounter were not such as to give him the pure religious conception for which his soul longed, and which he seemed to find in his ecstatic visions on the mountain-top and in the desert. So there was born into the world a new form of religion, a form which believed intensely in its founder and his teachings, and which determined to spread its faith at all hazards among all people. The extent of Mohammedanism, its religious zeal and fanaticism, and its missionary energy make it the great rival of the Christian faith. It is the one great missionary religion which, bearing so many charac- teristics almost identical with Christianity, is the hard- est problem that the church of Christ has ever been called upon to solve. What is the best method of approach? Is it that of controversy and attack, or is it rather the recognition of a religious impulse, ap- ^ Christian Approach to Islam, pages 253-4. OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 65 preciation of its worth, and realization of its pos- sibilities? Mohammedan Sects " My people will be divided into seventy-three sects; every one of which will go to hell except one sect," said Mohammed. Mohammedanism, therefore, is not one united re- ligion, but is divided into almost as many divisions as is the Christian faith. There are, however, two main branches: first, the Siinnis, who are known as the Orthodox Moslems and to whom belong the Turks, Arabs, and Eg}^ptians. These look upon Mecca as their sacred shrine, and it is the place to which the an- nual pilgrimage is directed. Second, tht Shiahs, or followers of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed. They look upon their leader as a martyr and believe him to be the legitimate successor to the Caliphate. This branch of Mohammedanism is found largely through- out Persia, but there are also members in other por- tions of Mohammedan lands. Their holy shrine is at Kerbela, west of Baghdad, where the son of Ali lies buried. Of minor sects there have been many that have risen, followed some leader for a time, and disappeared, just as sects in Christianity have done throughout the years. Some of these have been largely of political origin, as the order of the Assassins, followers of the " Sheikh-ul-Jebel," or " The Old Man of the Moun- tains " which exercised a reign of terror over Moslem 66 THE NEAR EAST and Christian alike throughout Persia, Turkey, and Egypt. This sect has now practically died out. Other divisions have been of religious aim, as the Wahabis of Arabia, v^ho sought to reform Islam by a return to the primitive practises of the early days. At the present time there are two or three so-called heretical sects which deserve mention. The Bahai originated in Persia, and has gained many followers not only in the land of its birth, but it has found adherents even in America, especially among those triflers and idlers whose habit it is to seek that which is new and unusual. The founder of this sect claims that from time to time God has found it necessary to reveal himself through some human being. The line has been Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and in these latter days, himself, Bahah-Allah, " The Glory of God." He has sought to combine " the best things " from Chris- tianity, Mohammedanism, and Zoroastrianism. He lays special stress on the universal brotherhood of men. The head of the sect. Abbas Efifendi, until recently a Turkish political prisoner, now resides in Acre, Pales- tine, where the grave of his father, the founder of the order, is located. There are two interesting secret sects in the moun- tains of Syria numbering some two hundred thousand each. In northern Syria are the Nusariyeh who retain certain heathen rites, as the worship of the sun and moon. In the southern Lebanon and south of Damascus are the Druses. On Thursday nights one may see the OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 67 men of this order filing away to some lonely hilltop where is located the place of their worship. There are forms of initiation by which the young men are inducted into the mysteries of the cult. The common people of this sect are supposed to have little to do with the practises of their religion; only those who have passed through a long course of instruction at- tend to the rites and ceremonies; but to these leaders the people are taught implicit obedience. The Druse can be all things to all men and may profess any re- ligion he pleases so long as he fulfils his secret vows of Druse loyalty. It is, perhaps, more like a secret fraternal order than a religious sect. Five Religious Duties of Islam Islam requires of every follower the observance of five religious duties. If Christians had observed the simple instructions of their Master as faithfully as these five injunctions have been followed, it would be a different world to-day. The five requirements are: Confession of the creed, " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is God's Apostle " ; Prayer, which has as a necessary preliminary certain legal purifications and is supposed to be performed five times a day ; Fast- ing, especially during the month of Ramadan through- out which the fast lasts each day from dawn to sunset; Alms, the required amount varying in different sects but averaging about one fortieth of the income; Pilgrimage, incumbent on every Moslem who is 68 THE NEAR EAST of age and who has sufficient means for the journey.^ These duties are observed by the devout Moslem, but it is noticeable that there is a growing indifference to them and to other requirements of the sacred law. One earnest Mohammedan who lived near us in Syria was filled with grief as the sufferings during the war increased. " This has all come upon us because of our sins," he was accustomed to say. " The mosque is empty at the hour of prayer, and men are more inter- ested in making money than in keeping the laws of God." How can these various sects and secret orders be best approached, and what will be most effective in awakening them to a sense of the need of personal relationship to a Heavenly Father and in demonstrat- ing the supremacy of Jesus' revelation of Him? ^ This is another great problem to be solved by the missionaries whose lot is cast among the Moham- medans. Tlie Christians Half-way between the cities of Aleppo and Antioch are the ruins of a beautiful Christian church. It was built in the form of a cross, and under the ruined dome there stands the pedestal of a great pillar. This pillar rose seventy feet in height, was four feet in diameter, and on the top of it, for thirty years, lived the hermit Simon, familiar in history as Simon * The Nearer and Farther East, pages 24-8. 2 The Lure of Africa, Chapter II. OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 69 Stylites. Here he spent his life, day and night, sum- mer and winter, in storm and sunshine. He preached to the people and prayed for their sins and was the object of veneration far and near. He was the founder of the peculiar order or sainthood known as the " Pillar Saints," which spread throughout northern Syria, Asia Minor, and even into southern and west- em Europe. This is illustrative of the religious fervor which laid hold upon the people of those early Christian cen- turies and not only made of them theological experts, but induced them to ofTer their all, despite hardship and privation, for the advancement of the religious life as they conceived it. But the customs and beliefs which have grown up about the Eastern church because of its environment are as widely separated from our Western conception of a Christian church as are the social usages of the East and the West. When the great church councils were called by the Emperor Constantine and his successors, there was but one church universal, just emerged from long and severe persecution and from conflict with paganism. But soon the growing importance of the Church of Rome and the continued importance of the Church of Constantinople, together with doctrinal differences. caused a split between the churches of the East and West. The churches of Asia Minor and Macedonia, to whom St. Paul addressed his epistles, are the direct ancestors of the Eastern church, which has survived 70 THE NEAR EAST as the Greek Orthodox Church of to-day. To this church are attached the national churches of all the Balkan States, of Russia, of the Greeks throughout Asia Minor, and a large share of the Christians of Syria, This Greek Orthodox Church differs from the Church of Rome in certain matters of doctrine and practise; as, for example, in the Greek churches there are no images, only pictures; the clergy are permitted to marry; often some worthy man of the village, whom the people have learned to trust, and to look upon as a religious leader, is chosen as village priest. Other Christian sects of these lands are named either from their founder or from the people among whom they flourish. There is the Armenian National Church, to which the great bulk of the Armenian people belong, the Armenian Roman Catholic Church, a product of the early Jesuit French missions, which has about 150,000 adherents, and the Armenian Evan- gelical Church with a constituency of about 100,000. Another sect is the Nestorian, or Assyrian Church of eastern Kurdistan and western Persia was founded by Nestorius. He was branded as a heretic by the early church councils, but his followers have held firm to their simple Christian faith through centuries of bitter persecution. The Copts of Eg^-pt, who received their name from an old Arabic word for Egypt, claim to have been founded by St. Mark. In most particu- lars their church is identical with the Greek Orthodox. They have suffered much at the hands of the Moslem OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 71 Arab invaders, but in spite of this they have remained the best educated and most progressive portion of the population of Egypt. In the northern Lebanon Mountains there is a group of sturdy, vigorous mountaineer Christians numl>ering perhaps three hundred thousand, who are known as the Maronitcs. They are named from their founder and leader Maron, who lived about the eighth cen- tury. Now, however, they recognize the Pope as head of the church and are, therefore, counted as a part of the Roman Catholic fold. But they differ in many particulars from the Roman Catholic Church; as, for example, in the marriage of the clergy and in the use of pictures rather than images. They are ver)- bigoted in their faith and represent the most illiterate part of the Syrian Christians, They have their own patriarcii, who resides in the Lebanon, and their connection with Rome is more nominal than real. During the past few years the Maronites have been especially under the protection of France, and it is this relation which has constituted the chief claim of France to Syria as a colony. Loss of Christians to Reconstruction Before the war the population of the Turkish Empire was about twenty millions. Of this number probably three fourths were Mohammedans and one fourth Christians. In Persia the Christians constitute but one tenth of the total population. The adversi- ties of war have fallen most heavily upon the Christian 72 THE NEAR EAST portion of these countries. The Armenians were all but exterminated, the Greeks were deported and per- secuted, and it was among the Christians in Syria and Persia that the famine was most severe. While a large number of the Mohammedan population perished from disease and famine and war, yet a much larger percentage of Christians succumbed. As the Christians have always constituted the most progressive and industrious peoples of the East, this loss will be felt keenly in the near future. In the work of reorganization and reconstruction that is now tak- ing place, the greatest problem is that of man-power, and these Eastern lands could ill afford to lose so great a number from among the most energetic and progressive of their peoples. The Religions Temperament The Apostle Paul, speaking to the men of Athens, .said, " I perceive that in all things ye are very re- ligious," or as the revised version has it, " too super- stitious." But it is true that the point where religion ends and superstition begins is very difficult to locate, and there are many contributing causes to the sus- ceptibility of Eastern peoples to a religion which merges into a superstition. It was from these Eastern people that we received the splendid visions and messages of the prophets, the psalmists, the apostles, and of Christ himself. Though they do not think with the logic of the Western mind. OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 73 their mystical temperament brings them into conscious relation with the Unseen. Says Lord Cromer, " I have lived too long in the East not to be aware that it is difficult for any European to arrive at a true estimate of Oriental wishes, aspirations, and opin- ions; " and again he says, " The want of mental sym- metry and precision is the chief distinguishing feature between the illogical and picturesque East and the logical West, and which lends such peculiar interest to the study of Eastern Hfe and politics; the fact that religion enters to a greater extent than in Europe into the social life and laws and customs of the people." ^ The languages of the East are rich in their re- ligious expressions. For example, the Arabic is said to have ninety-nine names for God, and the Armenian language is particularly well-suited for the expression of religious and spiritual ideas. In the common oaths and curses of the countr}- the name of the Deity does not appear as it does in the West. Of course in the legal oath the people swear by God, by the Prophet, by the Messiah, and by every- thing that is sacred ; but in the East one's ears are not continually shocked as they are in America. The old commandment, " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain " seems to be written in the very primary consciousness of these naturally reverent people of the East. The name of God is frequently used in common conversation, however. When a child or a beautiful * Political and Literary Essays, Vol. I, page 7. 74 THE NEAR EAST horse or any of the domestic animals is admired, the name of God is mentioned by some member of the company. This is supposed to break the charm of any evil purpose or evil eye, which the admirer might even unintentionally be casting upon the thing admired. The power of the evil eye is most firmly believed in by the people, whether Christians, Moslems, or Jews. They hold that there are certain people who, by the mere glance of the eye, have power to bring evil to those they look upon. They will relate endless stories of cases they have known where sickness or even death has been brought about by the casting of the evil eye. The name of God is often used in giving names to children, or it is compounded with some other word such as " the servant of God," or " the goodness of God," or " the glory of God." On the other hand, if a number of children in a family have died, a new child will be given the name of " wolf " or " leopard " or " lion " or " bear " with the idea that the animal's name will act as a charm and some special spirit will watch over it and protect it. Sometimes a child is so named to fool the evil spirits into overlooking it, where a charming name might otherwise attract them. So here we have the religious instinct closely allied with the superstitious. Many religious ceremonies are almost identical, whether in Christian, or Moslem, or Jewish families. Little children are surrounded with these rites almost from the time of their birth. One example of this is observed in the baptism of the child, when it may be OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 75 given some special saint's name. Thereafter the birthday of the child is not especially remembered, but the child always observes as a name-day the particular calendar day devoted to that saint. In other religions the rite of circumcision may take the place of bap- tism, and it has the same religious significance, whether it be observed in a Moslem or a Jewish family. The use of charms is very common, not only for the protection of children against diseases and acci- dent, but also for the protection of domestic animals. Every horse has a blue bead in its tail, a donkey will have a string of blue beads about its neck, and gen- erally a child will have a blue bead somewhere about its person. It is because blue eyes are believed to have a specially evil influence that a blue bead is the favorite charm. Blue-eyed people are quite generally dreaded, and the blue bead is intended as a rough representation of the eye that causes the mischief. With this belief in the evil eye, of course charms and vows are necessarily connected as counterfoils. In many parts of the East there are sacred trees. Frequently these are oaks growing beside the grave of some venerated saint or on some spot which has become a sacred shrine. To the boughs of these trees rags are tied in evidence of a vow having been per- formed, a vow to secure some special favor of health or success or safety, and it includes a future bestowal of some gift to the poor or the church or the shrine. Instances are common of Christians and non-Chris- tians coming to the same shrine and making their vows 76 THE NEAR EAST with the tying of a rag or the offering of a jar of oil. These customs, of course, are not original with either Christian or Mohammedan faith, but take one back to the days of the .primitive rehgions of these countries. Many of the ancient forms date back to the days of the Baal worship. Baal was not a universal God such as Jehovah, but a name applied to the spirit of each particular locality who was thought to be dwell- ing in some fountain or tree or in the fertile soil. Each locality had its own local spirit, the precise form •of worship of which has been handed down from generation to generation. Belief in the Nearness of God In the Eastern mind there is a far more lively sense of the nearness of the Unseen and of man's ability to realize that Unseen than is true in our Western thought. The Unseen is an actual reality to them, an ever present influence in their daily life. Whether it takes the form of religious ecstacy, as in the case of the prophet Mohammed, or of secret contempla- fl tion and prayer in the monastic cell, or the ignorant fear of a local spirit for good or evil resident in some fountain or stream or wave of the sea, it is all a part ^ of their keen sense of the release of spiritual power. To them the life of contemplation is natural. This is seen in both the Christian and Mohammedan re- ligions, and in this aspect these two religions differ OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 77 very little one from the other; but they have difTcrent outlets of the same religious aspiration.' Some years ago the author visited a cave, high up on the side of a mountain in Syria. A rude door gave entrance. Within, there was a rough couch hewn out of the rock of the mountain, and upon it lay a Ijcd, a human skull, and a few simple cooking utensils. For eighteen years this had been the home of a Christian hermit. A little garden on a terrace in front of the cave supplied recreation and exercise for the holy man. There he raised a few lentils and onions which were his chief articles of food. At the near-by monastery he was revered as a saint, and all the people of the country round about believed that in his retirement from the world and in his life of solitary contempla- tion he was able to draw near to God in an especial way. The mountains and rocky ravines of all these East- ern lands have in times past been the homes of many ascetics who, by their lives of self-denial, have sought for themselves greater spiritual insight and have been believed by the people to be special servants of God. The deserts of Egypt, the limestone cliffs of SjTia, and the high plateaus and mountain-tops of Mesopo- tamia and Armenia, have all been the haunts of such hermits, and the monasteries which are still scattered throughout these lands testify to the belief that with- drawal from the world promotes the highest religious hfe. ^ Aspects of Islam, Chapters V and VI. 78 THE NEAR EAST The minds of the people are by nature fitted for religious conceptions. They see spiritual powers in the stars of heaven at night, in the sun and the moon, in the life-giving contact of water and soil, in the fire that consumes and also cooks, in the storm, and in the desert calm. These aspirations have found expres- sion in various forms in times past : in the fire worship and contest of light and darkness of the Persians ; in the worship of the river Nile, in the Baals of Syria, and in the mysterious mountain-top abodes of the gods of the Greeks. Communion Expressed in Rituals This same spirit has developed the expressive and beautiful rituals of the religions of the East, which are probably the most natural expression of the people. The Hebrews worked out for their temple a religious expression in every form and ceremony, in the gar- ments of the priests, and in the vessels which were used. So, too, did the churches of these Eastern lands: the robes and censors, the altars and candles, the curtains and pictures, — each is an expression of the innate desire for ceremonial worship. Yet along- side of this seemingly natural ritualistic worship there has also existed an almost puritanical simplicity ; as, for example, may be noted in the synagogues of the Jews and to some extent in the services in the Mohammedan mosques. There seems to have been a feeling that the ritual tended to conceal rather than to reveal the spiritual, and there has been in many ^>^^^-^ td-'^^'^fs^''^ ^/^ -v ^^hi,^' Underwood an-i L iidctic,"i The Arab is a born nomad. This camp at the foot of Mt. Sinai, with its little black tents, is characteristic. The family and the flock are unhampered by neighborhood conventions OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 7^ cases a desire to break through formahties and to come at once in direct contact with the great Fatlier of mankind. Counteracting Influences In considering the Eastern churches one must re- member two things which have had direct influence upon religion. The first is the dense ignorance which has prevailed among the people. Until very recently there were few who could even read or write. Per- haps not more than ten per cent of the total popula- tion of all these lands could sign their own names or read a page from a simple book. This ignorance pre- vailed not only on the part of the people, but it in- volved the clergy in the churches as well. Frequently, the priest was the only person in the village who could read at all; often he could read nothing except the service, and that was written in a tongue not his own and was not understood by the people. Of course in the great church centers such as Cairo, Smyrna, and Constantinople there was a better situation, but throughout these countries as a whole, especially in the villages of the mountains and the interior valleys, this dense ignorance was common. The second influence which has prevailed to cor- rupt religion has been the connection of the church with the governing bodies of the lands. All of these Eastern lands came under Moslem sway, and it was the custom of these conquerors to give tlieir Christian subjects a choice of death or tribute. The latter being 80 THE NEAR EAST chosen, the head of the church then became respon- sible to the government for the collection and pay- ment of this tribute and for the negotiation of all questions of a political character which arose \\athin his communion. Moreover, the Moslem ruler held the right to approve the appointment of the head of the Christian churches. The result can readily be seen : the intrigue, the desire for personal preferment, the attempt to retain the good favor of the ruler, the rivalries for positions of power and influence, whether at the capital or even in the country diocese, naturally brought corruptive influences. These two elements have cooperated to make the churches unworthy vessels of the rich treasure with which they were entrusted. " A church without a Bible, with an ignorant priesthood, with no religious instruction, and no test for church membership could not be expected in any land or in any age to keep itself unspotted from the world. Under these condi- tions Christianity came to be largely a name, and the practises of religion only a form." ^ Splendid Exceptions This state of religion applies to the Eastern churches in general. There are, of course, splendid exceptions to the rule: priests and bishops who are well-educated and truly spiritually minded; people who maintain a beautiful religious life and who live very near to the ^Daybreak in Turkey, page 104. OLD RELIGIONS IX THE NEW DAY 81 Kingdom, whose lives in any land and among any people are a true reflection of the Master whose chil- dren they are and whom they serve. But these are rare exceptions, for, as a whole, the Eastern churches are dead in fanaticism and formalism. Christianity's Influence on Islam Such being the case, what influence could the church exert upon the rising power of Mohammedanism? Islam has never come in contact with a vital Chris- tianity. The Eastern churches have not shown suffi- cient devotion to their Master and have never lived sufiflciently in accordance with His teachings to have impressed their Moslem neighbors with any superior type of religion. All of Islam's contact with the Chris- tian world has been with sects largely lacking in the spirit of Christ. The Crusades were a fanatic attempt at military conquest; European nations have sought political and commercial domination; what must the Moslems think of the present so-called Christian na- tions of Europe plunging the world into the greatest fraternal strife that history has ever recorded, delug- ing the nations with blood and injustice and wrong? ^ Religion's Broken Barriers It is plainly to be seen that all the influences that have been brought to bear on these Near Eastern lands have been disrupting influences. The schemes and ' The Riddle of Nearer Asia, pages 8s-9S- 82 THE NEAR EAST ambitions of foreign nations have tended to political divisions; the ancient racial traditions have tended to produce a multitude of tiny nationalisms; and the religious history has torn people asunder and divided them into sects and denominations filled with bigotry one toward another. Visit the village of Bethlehem, go down into the grotto of the nativity, and behold the rock-hewn manger that once cradled the Prince of Peace. Why has it been necessary that there should be standing beside that holy place of peace a Moslem soldier with drawn sword, to keep " Christian " priests of dififerent orders from flying at one another's throats? This is typical of what has been the relationships of religions for centuries throughout these lands. Everywhere in the world the war has brought a demand for a new count of the meaning and value of religious faith. "Unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees " is the test demanded to-day of every re- ligious belief and practise. Streams of new life from all directions are already beginning to pour over the barriers now forever broken down and are about to flow across these ancient lands. This new life of commerce, politics, industry, and education cares little for historic creeds and ancient rites. If these things, by their divisions, hinder the progress of the new day, they will be swept aside; if they aid in a cooperation that upbuilds, they will have a large place in recon- structing the old life. OLD RELIGIONS IN THE NEW DAY 83 In the early years of the war all French schools and institutions were seized by the Turkish government, and the priests and sisters were often unceremoniously turned out-of-doors, later to be deported from the country. The buildings of the Syrian Protestant Col- lege in Beirut were thrown open to receive such refugees. It was a circumstance that opened wide the eyes of the land, to see Jesuit priests and Roman Catholic nuns hospitably and harmoniously housed in a Protestant institution. In Urumia, Persia, the American Mission compound was alternately a refuge for fleeing crowds of terror-stricken Syrian and Ar- menian Christians, and destitute Kurds and Turks. Thus was it demonstrated how the war could break barriers of religious attachment, and how the spirit of the West, in the name of Christ, could receive all men as brothers. Are these things merely for the stress of war? Must there be a necessary return to the old prejudices? Is not the spirit of the new day to be the spirit of Christ's day? At a conference recently held in Syria, the repre- sentatives of twelve Societies voted unanimously to join in cooperative work. These Societies included such widely divergent organizations as the Society of Friends and the Church Missionar}' Society of the Church of England. The plans include regular meet- ings together — cooperation in the occupation of new fields, union training of workers, promotion of united interests in the publication and distribution of mis- sionary literature, and the purpose to organize in Syria 84 THE NEAR EAST a single and united Church of Christ. As one of the members of the conference suggested, " Could Syria give any greater gift to the world, second only to the gift of Christ Himself, than a united Church from which all sectarian divisions were eliminated ? " The Young Men's Christian Association should play a large part in the physical, moral, and spiritual uplift of the Near East because it touches the young men of the country — the future leaders of the land. They sadly need what the Association can give them after over a thousand years of Moslem rule. The Grand Mufti, head of the Moslems in Palestine, has ex- pressed his interest in the organization, and said that he would welcome it for the young men of Jerusalem, adding that his own boy should be the first member. As this Near East is looking to the West for guid- ance in the affairs of state and industry, will it not also accept as never before that guidance which teaches toleration and cooperation, which proclaims : " In es- sentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity " ? What the Near East, together with all the world, needs to-day is not, primarily, greater and more effi- cient organizations and more extended industrial de- velopment, but it needs a new proclamation of and insistence upon the same gospel of love which Paul preached to the Corinthians. This is the fire that must burn among these people to whom the word was first proclaimed. IV HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES CHAPTER FOUR HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES TTA.NGING in the window of one of our Oriental *' ^ shops is a beautiful carpet. The price in this country is so high that only the more well-to-do can afford to buy it. Or, perhaps, he who has a real love of the beautiful will make that his one luxury and secure something which will be a joy to him through- out his remaining years. There are special marks upon this rug by which the initiated can tell the exact district or even village in which it was made. There is a legend contained in the pattern of the weaving, and the number of knots to the square inch reveals the skill of the laborer who produced it. Perhaps it began its journey by caravan to the markets of the West from Shiraz in Persia or from Bokhara or from the interior of Asia Minor; but from whatever distant loom it came, the story of its manufacture is practically the same. The story of the making of that rug is the story of the industrial and artistic life of the people of the Near East, whether of Persia or Turkey or Egypt. 87 "88 THE NEAR EAST One who is not acquainted with Oriental carpets is often distressed by the irregularity of pattern, by the fact that one end is wider than the other, or that the shade of colors is not the same throughout the rug. These are but marks by which the story of the making of the rug can be read. The Life Story of a Rug A mother in Persia has decided to make a carpet for her home. In one corner of the living-room is a frame over which the warp is laid. Skeins of yam are spun by hand from wool that has been saved from the sheep that have supplied the winter's food for the family. From vegetables and herbs gathered in the garden and on the mountain-side the dyes are pre- pared in the home. The design which is to be woven into the rug is not original, but it is the conventional design of that village, — it would be a shame to weave a carpet with a new pattern from which people would not recognize the village in which it was made. Then, as household cares permit, the mother and her daugh- ters, with skilful fingers trained from childhood, tie into the groundwork the bright colors of the yarn. Slowly and laboriously, with painstaking care, one hundred, two hundred knots, or more to the square inch, the rug grows into form. Month after month the work advances, and in the course of a year, two years, or three, this work of love for the home has been completed. With careful and dexterous fingers HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 89 the shears have been taken, the surface has been clipped until all the yarns are of equal lengtli, and at last the rug is spread upon the floor. Then the family and neighbors gather and give expression to their admiration at the skill of the housewife in this, her labor. For years the rug lies upon the floor of that home, or perhaps, moved by some religious impulse, it is given as an offering to the church or the mosque ; but never, whether in home or place of worship, has the dirt of the street been ground into it, for the shoes of the family or worshipers have always been removed at the door. And so through years of use, the surface of this carpet has been polished by stockinged feet until it has been given that incomparable sheen which no machine-made rug of Western lands ever attains. After a time the changing fortunes of the family or the attractive price of some merchant throws the rug into the market, and it is brought to our Western shores and offered for sale as we see it in this shop window. Indizndual Haitdicraft Whether it is a carpet that is made, a towel that is woven, or a jar of brass that is hammered, it is always the individual hand-work of some artisan who has learned his trade from his father, or who has been apprenticed to some master \vorkman. It is interesting to note here that the word for teacher and master is the same : one who guides the child until he has become 90 THE NEAR EAST the expert and finished workman, whether with tools or with books, Archeologists tell us that they can trace the history of one of these Eastern lands by the bits of broken pottery that they find buried in the sites of ancient cities. One layer of this pottery above another, with intervening covering of earth, tells how one home or one town has been built over the ruins of another, and each broken bit of pottery bears the distinctive mark of its locality. To-day you enter a pottery by the seaside: there sits the workman at his wheel, the motive power being his bare feet, and for the shaping of the jar he uses his hands and a stick. With this crude machinery, he produces jars of most graceful pattern which, either in shape or decoration, differ from those of every other district. Industry, then, is always local, individual handi- craft. There are certain recognized guilds for the different trades. Boys serve apprenticeships and after attaining a degree of proficiency become regularly recognized journeymen. But there is no standardizing of pattern nor organization into great industrial centers. This system of village handicrafts, if system it can be called, has doubtless preserv^ed the traditional arts of the people, and has developed a high degree of skill in the individual worker. But it has failed to make use on any large scale of the raw materials lying close at hand, or to make of the country a great factor in HOAIE LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 91 the production of articles for the consumption of the world. The type of life in these countries, therefore, is dominantly that of the village, for there have been no organized industrial movements to draw laborers into city centers. The life of the people has remained simple; the problems of the complex living conditions created by industrial cities have not yet arisen for any considerable portion of the population. How to meet the demands of the new period that is opening, when machinery and factories will become common, is a serious question for the people and their leaders. How may the old skill of hand and simplicity of living be preserved, while at the same time the people are given the opportunity for larger production and for winning better returns from their labor? The results of organized industrial life are not all constructive, and there is a beauty and attractiveness about this simple home manufacture which is well worth pre- serving if it can also be made to meet the larger de- mands which the expanding life of the country must lay upon it. Agrictdtural Life What has been said of the manufacturing life is largely true also of the agricultural. The two are not so distinctly divided in these backward lands of the East as they are in our more highly organized lands of the West. The pastoral, the agricultural, and the industrial live side by side in the same village, com- munity, and family. For while the father is tilling 92 THE NEAR EAST the bit of land which belongs to the family, the mother is often adding to her household cares the making of a rug, or the crocheting of beautiful lace, or the em- broidering of a table-cloth or cushion cover. On the other hand, often the father and sons are weavers, and it is the woman folk who care for the sheep, the chickens, and the cow which supply the family with food and clothing. The methods of agriculture are too well-known to need detailed description here. The simple plow drawn by a yoke of cows, by a donkey, or a camel is a familiar picture in all books about the life of the East. The harvester's sickle or the crude threshing floor with the sledge which tears the straw into bits and beats out the ripened grain is a favorite item of description for tourists. This plow but scratches the surface of the ground, the grain is scattered by hand, the sickle gathers the harvest a handful at a time, the long, dry summer is given to threshing and winnow- ing, and the flour is ground in the old stone mill turned by a rude water-wheel beside one of the moun- tain streams. Irriga tio n Possibilities The people have a natural aptitude for the processes of irrigation, for in these lands are vast areas where there are months of dry summer-time, and the moun- tains, fountains, and streams must be the means of fertility to the soil through the growing months. With their rude irrigation ditches and primitive dams, the HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 93 people have indeed done well in the rescuing of garden plots, orchards, and small fields from the arid waste of summer. The ancient Babylonians had great and extensive irrigation works throughout the Mesopo- tamian valley, but these have been permitted to fall into disrepair, until that whole vast region is now either a swamp or a desert. The engineers of the. British Government in Eg>'pt have demonstrated what can be done in the present day by the control of surplus water and the proper distribution of it in the valley of the Nile. Similar surveys have been under- taken in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Fol- lowing the advance of the British army in Mesopo- tamia, thousands of acres of hitherto desolate land have been redeemed, and the wilderness behind where the British lines were is already beginning to blossom as the rose. Pastoral Life Over the hills and up the mountain-sides of the Near East roam flocks of sheep and herds of goats tended by a shepherd and his faithful dog. They gather at night in a rudely built sheep-fold where the shepherd, lying across the doorway, interprets the meaning of Christ's statement, " I am the door of the sheep." The camel, the essential element in the transporta- tion system of the Near East, is raised in great herds along the edge of the desert and is sold in the markets of Damascus, Aleppo, and Baghdad. Along with the camel, the horse was God's gift to 94 THE NEAR EAST the Arab. These animals are native to this region, and the finest blood and the best stock that the world has known come from the plains of Mesopotamia and the deserts of Arabia. Water buffaloes, donkeys, and domestic cattle are found ever}-where. This agricultural and pastoral life is lived in its simplicity. The people work hard, have a native instinct for both soil and stock, and yet, because of ignorance and oppression, they have been unable to gain a due reward for the amount of energy and in- dustry displayed. Peace and Protection, then Progress Throughout the hundreds of years of the history of these countries, the Arabs from the desert and the Kurds and Circassians from the hills have ever been a menace to those people who wished to cultivate the soil and to live in peace in the villages and towns. They have always descended as robber bands upon these peaceful industrial settlements and have swept away the result of the year's industry. The hero Gideon gained his distinction by driving back the hordes of Midianites who had overspread the land of Israel. They had come with their little black tents, their flocks of sheep, and their herds of camels and had settled like locusts upon the land. No govern- ment has yet been able fully to protect the land from these marauders, no government has permitted the people to unite for their own protection, nor has any HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 95 methodical means been sought to train the robbers in better ways of living. Indeed, the greatest robber has been the government itself. But once give the people peace and protection from these robbers, both official and marauding, and they will very quickly reestablish their own industrial and community life. The very primitive individual method of manufac- ture, where they use the raw material that is at hand and work it up in their own village and home, relieves the people of much of the embarrassment which comes to the ordinary manufacturing community. This sim- plifies the question of reconstruction. The problem of the present, and that for which the people are longing, is, then, that of reestablishment and safety. Later there will come the aid which can be given by improved methods, machinery, and instruction. The present form of industry is individualistic; organized industry is cooperative. At the present time every family or village is sufficient to itself. What will be the advantages and disadvantages of Western leadership and organization when this simple life shall be broken down and the more complex interdependent life, called civilization, shall come to prevail? Dining Out in Egypt A trip to Egypt means, of course, that you will see the Pyramids, and the Sphinx, and the great Temples of Karnak, and the wonderful Assuan Dam. And if you are very fortunate, there may come a messenger 96 THE NEAR EAST from the father of one of the students in the American College inviting you to dinner at his home. He is a wealthy Mohammedan. His private carriage with a fine team of horses or, perhaps, an automobile is wait- ing at the hotel door. You have been through the bazaars, have visited the mosques, and have been im- pressed with the fine European city of Cairo. But here is a chance to enter a real Egyptian home, and so you accept the invitation and are whirled away to one of the fine residential districts, and arriving at your host's home, are received with great courtesy as an honored guest. There is always excitement about being received for the first time in a Moslem home. You feel that things must be different from what you are accustomed to. You do not know just how you are supposed to act, or what is the proper etiquette to be observed. Every curtain, you imagine, divides the harem from the rest of the house. You expect to find veiled faces or per- haps a pair of curious eyes peeping out from behind the drapery. Yet none of these things occur. You find the Cairo home very much like any man- sion in Europe. Servants receive you at the door, and you are ushered into a drawing-room, furnished with Parisian furniture, although with a decided touch of the Oriental intermingled. There are splendid Persian carpets on the floor, over the divan, and sometimes hanging upon the walls. There will probably be a phonograph and possibly a piano. You will be received by the head of the house and HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 97 his son and very likely a friend or two who have been invited for the occasion. Cigarettes will be passed and coffee, not large cups of coffee with cream and sugar, but little cups, piping hot, poured from tiie brass coffee-pot in your presence, perhaps with sugar, more likely without, and sometimes flavored with cinnamon. The servants tread softly and are robed in the long white gowns peculiar to the people of the Nile and well-suited to the heat of that country. After you have remained seated for a time, your host will ask when you would like to have dinner, and you find yourself in the embarrassing position of hav- ing to indicate whether you will eat now or later, for his politeness does not permit him to fix the time at which the meal shall be served. You say that you will be pleased to dine now. Then the courses begin to arrive, served perhaps on a little table in the drawing-room where you are sitting or, if your host has become sufficiently Europeanized, in a grand dining-room and on a dining-table. Often the meal will consist of a dozen or fifteen or even twenty courses: vegetables, meat, and sweets being inter- mingled throughout this repast. If it chances to be during the Fast of Ramadan, you will eat alone, for your good Mohammedan must not eat until the sim has set, and it is still early for his meal. Such cus- toms as these would not differ materially in any well- to-do home in the modern cities of the Near East, whether in Cairo, Damascus, Constantinople, or Teheran. 98 THE NEAR EAST In a Peasant Village Go now on another visit, this time to a village in the midst of the rich corn lands of the Delta, and there a friend will drive you in his pony chaise to one of the villages which belongs to his estate. The flat- roofed houses are built of mud-dried bricks; the floors are possibly made of stone, more likely of clay smoothed, beaten down, and dried; the furniture is very meagre, the beds are mattresses spread upon the floor and put away in a little alcove during the day. Here the landowner gathers the people about him and in truly patriarchal fashion hears their complaints, ad- vises them about their business or their fields, decides family quarrels, and reconciles a husband and his wife. The men and the women mingle freely, and all are curious to see the stranger. Some are roasting green ears of corn over an open fire, and others are baking com cakes for the evening meal. There is an appetiz- ing fragrance from these culinary preparations, and you gladly accept when invited to share the meal. It matters not that the open fire over which the cooking has been done was m.ade of dried manure cakes, of which you see many plastered on the side of the house, or that the surroundings are not as clean and hygienic as a sanitary commission would advise. It all seems part of a primitive, simple, contented village life. On inquiry you learn that these peasants are re- receiving rich returns for their rented lands, and that many of them have deposits in the agricultural banks HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 99 which the government has established. The ever pres- ent water in the irrigating ditches, made possible by that splendid dam you visited up the Nile, insures an abundant crop of com or cotton. The peasants are no longer subjected to the usury of money-lending sharks, nor are they oppressed by the collection of exorbitant taxes sometimes a year in advance. The Feudal Lords of the Mountains Later on, you journey to the land of Syria and find yourself in an old feudal castle of the Lebanon Moun- tains, for generations the home of Druse princes. The walls are of thick masonry, the door is studded with iron spikes and is heavily barred on the inside. Loopholes for rifles are on either side. Up and down the steep stone staircase, some daring horseman once rode his thoroughbred Arab mare. This castle is the guest house of the village and the country- round. The hall is a common sitting-room, and any traveler who chances to be passing, or any man who has business with the estate, or any curious tourist who w'ishes to see how these feudal lords of the mountains live, is welcome to the hospitality of this house. There will be food in abundance, care for his horses, a guest- room for himself and his comrade. He can arrive at what hour he likes and leave when he pleases. The master of the house, if at home, will receive him with the greatest cordiality, and the sen-ants all understand that everything is to be done for his comfort. He is 100 THE NEAR EAST free to roam about the gardens, to visit the stables, to ask questions about the traditions of the house and vicinity, and all is as though he were in his own ances- tral palace. There is no charge for entertainment, and only thanks are welcome. There is a touch of the medieval days still retained in these mountain fastnesses, not only of the Lebanon, but of the other mountain districts of Asia Minor, Kurdistan, or Persia. There is something grand about the hospitality and a genuine cordiality about the greet- ing and the farewell. A Mountain Village But besides the castles of these lords, there are many peasant villages where the people own their bits of land and are independent as agriculturists or trades- men. Each family will have its home of two or three rooms, built either from stone or sun-dried bricks ac- cording to the manner of the district in which it lives. There will be a small vineyard, a few olive trees and fig or mulberry trees, belonging to each family. While the father is engaged in tilling the soil or following his trade of stone-cutter, shoemaker, or carpenter, the wife is giving her attention to the simple household cares; but, as there is only one cooked meal a day, and generally all eat from the same dish, making spoons of their bread, there are no knives or forks or un- necessary dishes to be washed. These simple house- hold cares are not, however, the wife's only duty. She must also gather the mulberry leaves and help feed HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 101 the silkworms, wash and prepare the wheat for the mill, fatten the sheep for the winter's supply of meat, gather the wool, spin it and knit it into coarse stock- ings or underwear, and, as time permits, do that l^eau- tifnl crochet and needlework which is oflFered for sale by the Eastern merchants and pedlars in our towns. In these homes children are raised as gifts from Gcxi. Thus the life of the village folk goes on in its simple, primitive, hard-working round. Estimate of Education Where opportunity offers, children are sent to the village school and, if possible, to the missionary col- leges, for education, especially among the Christian peoples, is very highly prized. A son or daughter who returns to his village having received something of higher education is highly regarded by all the village folk, and his vv^ords are received as words of wisdom. As a rule the educated young person is not expected to join in the daily tasks of the village life. Not that education has unfitted him for manual work, but edu- cation is supposed to have raised him to a higher plane. He must be a teacher, a doctor, or the follower of some other learned profession, and the village labor is not becoming for such a one. A Mission Pastor The next home you visit may be that of a pastor in the north countr}^ With his wife and children he is 102 THE NEAR EAST comfortably settled in a house of three rooms. The floor is covered with straw matting and cheap, but durable, rugs. The one large room serves as living- room, study, reception-room, chapel for prayer meet- ings, and, upon occasion, guest-room. This pastor has his time well occupied with preaching services in the village church and supervision of the schools, both in his own town and in the neighboring district. He also teaches, having a class every day in the higher grade. Then, because he is an educated man, he is called upon for various tasks: to write and read let- ters for the people of the village, to interpret the course of events in the outer world, and, as far as possible, to share with the people the gifts which his books have brought to him. His library is very meagre. There is no book-shop from which he can add to his store, and only occasionally does a new book or magazine come his way; but the few that he has are cherished and studied and shared. His wife, too, has as many demands made upon her time as though she were a pastor's wife in Amer- ica. Besides these duties, she must keep her home a model of neatness and order, so that it may be an example to the whole village. As Paul told Timothy, " The Bishop must be one who can first rule his own family." The pastor's house is a guest-house where any traveler is welcome, and where the people of the village may gather of an evening to tell stories, ip recount legends, and to receive instruction. Upon entering this home you will be served with K^l *s. -<«». ■ ii** jf '^-^M^^ 4 Underwood and Underwood ^$^^^^ /'• ■ ti'i-jC u'^'^-STf^ The first problem in Mesopotamia is irrigation. Here is evidence to prove the need of opening the doors of the old Turkish Empire to free commercial intercourse with the Western World. This scraper, typical of the days of Moses, is in use to-day I 4 HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 103 the best that their simple life affords. Your bed will probably be made upon the floor. Guests will gather in the evening, expecting you to give as well as receive, for you have come from the outside world, and they wish to learn all that you can give to them. They will remain "late into the night; in fact, it is perfectly proper to inform your guests that you are tired and that it is time for them to leave, otherwise they may remain indefinitely. In Other Homes It would be delightful in the course of one's jour- ney to visit the Arab in his tent upon the desert, to break bread with him, to see his flocks and herds and perhaps have an opportunity of riding one of his fa- vorite steeds in a race across the level gravel surface of the desert. How interesting it would be to go to such a district as Shiraz or Kermanshah and see the manufacture of Persian rugs in the homes of the people; to be served with glasses of the delicious white tea, sweetened but without milk; to have them point out the places made famous by Persia's long and won- derful history; to see where Rawlinson finally learned to translate the ancient Persion inscriptions; to go with the people to their work, to their schools, and to their mosques! Village life in all these countries of the East is very much the same, given a local change of dress and food and natural surroundings; but it is all primitive and individual, each village living largely for and by 104 THE NEAR EAST itself, without easy means of communication, one dis- trict with another. Traveling in the East Few of those who visited " the streets of Cairo " at the World's Columbian Exposition failed to tr}- a camel ride, and as the huge beast lumbered into posi- tion and strode away with his peculiar, rocking motion, there seemed more of adventure and excitement than of pure enjoyment in the experience. But trains of such camels have been the system of transportation throughout all these Eastern lands from time im- memorial. Pack-trains of mules and horses, too, go over the rough mountain paths connecting village with village, but it has been the camels that have taken the supply of food and clothing and the articles of mer- chandise from one end of the land to the other and from one country to another. Very few carriage roads have been constructed ex- cept where tourist trade has demanded them, such as in Palestine and southern Syria or where European in- fluence and trade have rendered it necessary, as along the seacoasts and from the Caucasus into Persia. Some railroads under foreign grants have been con- structed, so that it is now possible to go all over Eg}'pt on as good trains as are found anywhere in the world. During the War a railroad was built for militar}- pur- poses from the Suez Canal to Jerusalem. It is now being developed for regular service, so that the EgA-p- tian who in years past bumped and rocked on camel HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 105 back for days over rough roads may now get into a luxurious sleeper and the next morning fare forth into Jerusalem after a restful night's sleep. One can pass from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and down into northern Persia on Russian railway lines. Before the war, English and French roads had penetrated somewhat into the interior of Turkey from Smyrna and Beirut. The Turkish Government had built a narrow-gage railway along the edge of the desert from Damascus down into Arabia as far as the city of Medina ; and last but not least, the Germans had contemplated a great trunk line from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf. The greater and most difficult part of this road has already been built, and it is in operation so that one can go by train from the Bos- phorus across the plains of Asia Minor, by tunnel through the Taurus Mountains, over the Euphrates River, and well-nigh to Mosul itself. A railroad from Basra to Baghdad has also been built by the British as part of a military system. But one of the most impor- tant enterprises of this nature is the railroad which was built secretly from the eastern border of Persia through Baluchistan to northern India. This opens up a through route from the Persian Gulf to India. While there are these main arteries of transporta- tion by rail and while they do sen-e to bind these countries together as never before, still the chief means of travel and transport is by pack-train or wagon over the rough, native paths or the very indifferent high- ways. Some slight extension of the railroads already 106 THE NEAR EAST constructed and improvement of wagon-roads will be a great blessing to these lands, rendering trade more easy and travel more rapid and safe. They will also serve to break up the individual self-sufficiency of the various districts, binding them together in a feeling of interdependence, and enabling the government to exercise more efficient control and protection of the disturbed parts. Yet, after all, many portions of the country must still be reached by camels, mules, and horses. Just as in Egypt, where the railways are so admirable and the system so extended, these native beasts of burden have still their great work to perform. The Gifts of Nature Cutting across the eastern end of the great Sahara Desert is the valley of the Nile River. Fed by the rains and lakes of Central Africa, it flows, a river of life, across the sands of the desert. Eg}'pt proper extends for eight hundred miles up the Nile, and the fertile portion averages about sixteen miles in width. To this may be added a few oases in the neighbor- ing desert. It has always been one of the wonders of the world how this narrow valley of 13.000 square miles could support the great populations of Eg}'pt and also supply grain for the countries of Europe. It is no wonder that in ancient times the Nile was worshiped as a god, for this river valley, with its luxuriant soil and abundant water-supply, is one of the richest gifts of nature to the world. HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 107 To US in this Western world little is known of the land of Persia. It is a great empire of over 600,000 square miles, but only one fourth of this surface is fertile. Rich and beautiful valleys between the moun- tain ranges, with abundant springs and streams have made this land famous in past history for its beauty and fertility. We are told that the finest wheat in all the world comes from Persia, and that fruits and flowers abound in these sun-kissed valleys. During the past five years the greatest attention has been centered upon lands embraced within the Turkish Empire. Exclusive of Arabia, this empire at the be- ginning of the war was as large as the United States of America east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, with the state of Virginia added. The climate varies from temperate to sub- tropical. The lower plains and the river valleys are rich alluvial deposits, deep and fertile. The soil of the country in the higher plains has been produced by the disintegration of the limestone rocks, and it is con- stantly renewed by the washings of the mountains. Such a climate and such a soil insure a rich return for all labor expended upon it. Turkey has always been looked upon as chiefly an agricultural country, and this, perhaps, is its first re- source in wealth. One recalls from Ancient History stories of the riches of Babylon and Mesopotamia. This wealth was derived almost entirely from the agri- cultural prosperity of the country. Grains of all kinds and also cotton, were produced in such abundance that 108 THE NEAR EAST the Greek historian Herodotus said that he feared to write the size of the plants and fruits lest his readers should not believe him. Not only is the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates one of the richest garden spots in the world, but there are also other stretches of territory in this wonderful land which are almost equally productive. We remem- ber the stories in the Bible of the raids of the Midianites upon the grain-fields of Israel. The land of Moab was also famous for its wheat, and the great valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon was one of the gran- aries of ancient days. Central Asia Minor is one great plateau, capable of cultivation and of production of all kinds of grains. Indeed, we are told that wheat and the sorghum plant are native to the Turkish Empire. But these great fields lie largely waste at the present time. Antiquated methods of industry, the crudest of tools, together with entire lack of encouragement on the part of the government, has turned what should be the garden of the world into a great Turkish desert. We are assured, however, that all of this can easily be reclaimed by proper encouragement, organi- zation, and the construction of suitable works of irri- gation. The Mesopotamian valley supported at one time at least forty millions of people. The entire Turkish Em- pire before the war did not have a total population of more than twenty millions, and the past four years has seen that reduced at least twenty-five per cent. HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 109 Yet this country is capable of easily feeding and caring- for a hundred million souls. Olives, grapes, oranges, lemons, figs, dates, cherries ; how one's mouth waters to think of them ! And they all grow abundantly in Turkey, together with most of the fruits and nuts of the temperate climate. We all know of the dried figs of Smyrna, the apricots of Syria, and the dates of Basra. There are also large agricultural possibilities in silk culture, tobacco, licorice, hemp, and flax, and many other plants which can readily be produced. Untouched Mineral Wealth The mineral wealth of Turkey and Persia is not so well known. It is true there has been talk of copper and iron and silver and gold. We know of the gold- mines of Croesus, of the fine steel of the Damascus blades, and that the ancient Egyptians worked mines in certain parts of southern Palestine. The maps which have been published by German engineers indi- cate rich deposits of coal, both soft and hard, well dis- tributed throughout the country. Iron also occurs in at least a dozen places, while copper is found in a num- ber of districts, some of the mines producing ore con- taining as high as seventy per cent of the metal. Silver is noted in at least four places, and mercury, manganese, lead, emery, and salt are found in abun- dance. There are many other secondary metals which have been noted, but a more careful survey is needed 110 THE NEAR EAST to point out where the rich deposits lie. We have already made mention in this book of the petroleum which is being piped from the Persian border to the coast. In at least three other parts of the Turkish Empire this invaluable fluid can undoubtedly be located. Those competent to speak upon the subject state that there is no other district in the world which gives such prospects of rich return in petroleum as the region of the Jordan valley. But these mineral resources also lie wholly unde- veloped, and Turkish and Persian wealth is potential rather than developed. While these nations are asking to borrow a little money here and a little there to pay the interest on their debts, or to quiet their creditors for a brief time, there lie within their borders, locked in the soil, riches which should make their citizens merchant princes of the world. The New Day and the Old Gospel Here then, we have a people living in the midst of a land of untold natural possibilities, yet with society and industry so little organized that their wealth is scarcely touched, and life is still in primitive sim- plicity. While there are Europeanized cities along the seacoasts, with many of the blessings and curses of Western life, yet throughout the lands as a whole, the feudal lord and the peasant serf, the caravan and the pack train, the village loom and the craft of hand are the ruling modes of trade and industry. HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 111 The war has brought the dawn of a new Hfe. The world has become acquainted with the fertile plains, the rich mineral deposits, and the oil-fields. No longer will the restless energy of the West permit these natu- ral sources of wealth to lie idle, or the laborer to work in his crude and unproductive manner. The eyes of men have seen the immeasurable opportunities for progress and production in these lands. ^ This is all going to mean tremendous changes in the next few years. The m.erchant, instead of being willing to await the slow-moving camel train, will de- mand a railway; the doctor will not go about with saddle-bags on horseback, but will need an automobile ; orders will be flashed from city to city by telegraph and wireless instead of being carried by messenger. There will be air routes too. Organized industrial communities will spring up where a mill by a water- fall is spinning and weaving the cotton from the fields of Mesopotamia and the wool from Kurdistan. This means changed social conditions, a new attitude toward morality and religion, less of contemplation, more of action. Will all these changes tend to enrich the life of the people? Would it not be better to preserve the old, simple, homely way of doing things? Much of the poetic in life and the artistic in industry will be lost. Yet these changes are inevitable. It is the sure march of events. Oriental lands which have been more exposed than » The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Chapter VIII. 112 THE NEAR EAST the Near East to the play of the forces of modem industrialism have already passed through the early phases of revolution in their economic life. It will be interesting to compare Turkey and her neighbors with Japan, for example, and to observe the tendencies which are at work in both cases for the transforma- tion of the industrial order. Or compare Turkey with India. What safeguards are there in either case for the protection of the values in the older civilization? What are the resources of each for meeting the new demands imposed by a modern industrial organiza- tion? This break-up of the old social order is bound to bring with it new doubts and new temptations. Along with the awakened interest in industry and trade will come a great awakening to the need of educational training. Of what kind will this be, and who shall direct it? The problem appears in that the old, simple life and methods are about to give place to more of the com- plicated, organized life of the West. What elements are necessary to guide this new life so that it will become strongly constructive for intelligence, self- control, brotherhood, justice. Christian ideals? The roads of Rome, along which the Apostle Paul and his associates carried the vitalizing gospel of the Resurrection, are about to give place to lines of steel rails and highways for motor transit. Shall not these new roads be highways along which shall hasten the feet of messengers of an old gospel for a new day? V A CENTURY OF MISSIONS CHAPTER FIVE A CENTURY OF MISSIONS /^N the slope of Mount Pagus overlooking Smyrna ^^ is a grove of tall and graceful cypress trees which attract the notice of all travelers as they ap- proach the city. This spot is venerated as the resting- place of good Bishop Polycarp, the martyr, whose sufferings and those of his persecuted flock come to mind as we read the words of encouragement and cheer addressed to the church of Smyrna by John in the second chapter of the book of Revelation : " I know thy tribulation. . . . Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer. ... Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." It is a message that abides in memor>% constantly gather- ing fresh and inspiring associations, as one reviews the record of those faithful ones who have given themselves to the work of making Christ live anew in these very lands where first his church was founded. On approaching the city of Beirut one sees an- other grove of dark green cypress trees, almost in 116 THE NEAR EAST the heart of this harbor city of Syria. Beside this grove rise the belfry and tower of the Protestant church; near by is the great American Mission Press from which copies of Arabic scripture are sent to all the Arabic-speaking world. But under the cypress trees lie those whose labors have made press and church and school possible. There is the grave of Pliny Fisk, marked by a sim- ple marble slab giving the date of his birth and death and recording the fact that in 1819 he bade farewell to his native land and gave his all in the great service. His comrade, Levi Parsons, is buried in the Greek Orthodox cemetery at Alexandria, Egypt. Only five brief years of work were granted these young men who came to the East so full of hope and consecration. Beside the grave of Pliny Fisk are the last resting- places of men who followed in the path he opened and who were permitted to devote, some forty, some fifty, and some sixty years to the task of building again the waste places. Throughout these lands of the Near East, from the Sudan of Africa to the plateaus of Iran, there are scores of men and women — preachers, teachers, doc- tors, nurses — who are occupying strategic posts in the lands these two dauntless young pioneers set out to explore. A full century of mission work, with its discouragements, persecutions, martyrdoms, achieve- ments, has laid the broad and deep foundations for the building of a Christian civilization in this new -day. A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 117 Pioneer Days In 1801 the first " Annual Report " of the Church Missionary Society of London mentioned Persia as one of the fields to be occupied. In 181 1 Henry Martyn, serving as a British army chaplain, spent a year in Persia and translated the New Testament and Psalms into that language. In 181 5 Mr. Jowett was appointed to begin a " Mediterranean Mission." But there was no permanent establishment of mission work until 1819, when the " American Board " commis- sioned Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, classmates at Aliddlebury College, to go to Turkey. It was no light task that was placed before the two young men. " You will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes which dwell in that land and the sur- rounding countries. The two grand inquiries ever present in your minds will be, ' What good can be done ? ' and * By what means ? ' What can be done for the Jews? What for the Pagans? What for the IMohammedans ? What for the Christians What for the people in Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Armenia, in other countries to which your inquiry may be extended?" The first twenty years of this century of missions was spent largely in spying out the lands. The ac- counts of the travels, exploits, and adventures of these intrepid explorers are most fascinating and exciting.^ The story of Eli Smith and of H. G. A. Dwight in ^ Daybreak in Turkey, Chapter XII. 118 THE NEAR EAST their journey from Constantinople to Tabriz, Persia, traveling 2,500 miles on horseback and 1,000 miles by water through a " wild country beset with robbers and perils of every kind," rivals any tale of travel or adventure ever written. Original Purpose of Missions There was no notion at first of establishing a Prot- estant sect in the Eastern lands. The first mission- aries were sent to Palestine, Egypt, and Asia Minor in the hope of cooperating with the historic Christian churches and helping them to realize their opportunity and their task. There was the great Mohammedan world, with no proper witness being borne to it; there were the Jews, receiving no effective testimony of the Messiah. If only the Eastern churches could be awakened to their responsibility, they would be the best channels of evangelization. It is not strange that in the first great wave of en- thusiasm which came with the birth of the modern missionary movement, the interest of Christendom should become centered on the Bible lands. The attention of Christian students was earnestly directed to the churches which had an unbroken tradition from the first centuries. The hope was aroused that once again the lands of the East might become a center of Christian effort. A hundred years ago very little was really known about the land, the peoples, and the religions of the A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 119 Near East. Students of church history knew of the early church councils and creeds, and a study of the history of doctrines had given some knowledge of the ancient heresies which had divided the church of Christ in the first centuries. The names of Greek, Copt, Armenian, and Nestorian were known as church divisions, but there was no thorough acquaintance with their problems nor with their relations toward their leaders. Therefore, Parsons and Fisk were sent out with the two interrogation points foremost in their instructions, "What good can be done?" and "By what means ? " Triendly Welcome It was this necessity for investigation and explora- tion which shaped the work for the first two decades of mission activity. The early efforts were not all met with opposition. In 1835 Rev, Justin Perkins and his wife and Dr. and Mrs. Grant arrived in Urumia, Persia, to open work with the Nestorians. Attention had been called to this ancient sect of " Persian Christians " by a paragraph in the writings of a traveler and lecturer, Dr. Joseph Wolf. These American missionaries were cordially received by the Nestorians, and for some time the chief ecclesiastical officers of the sect cooperated with them. The King of Persia sent a special firman (edict) to express his pleasure that teachers had come from the New World to instruct his subjects. In Egypt, too, the early workers, while not so cor- 120 THE NEAR EAST dially received by the Coptic Church, were welcomed by Said Pasha, ruler of the land. He was very anxious to secure European favor and took pains to protect these messengers from the West. He granted them an especially favorable building site at the en- trance of the Mooski. This was one of the most prominent locations in the city of Cairo. Periods of Development The century of missions in the Levant can be di- v'ided roughly into three periods. The first, covering a period of perhaps twenty years, was one of ex- ploration and investigation. The lands were traversed from end to end, central mission stations were located, peoples and religions were studied, translations were begun, and in other ways pioneer work was estab- lished. The second period was one of organization. It was soon found necessary to depart from the original plan and to make provision for an " Evangelical " or Protestant Church. Many persons from the old sects found in the teachings of the missionaries a new re- ligious life and inspiration. But the old churches were not sympathetic to the message which the mis- sionaries emphasized; in fact, they began to offer objections and even severe persecutions to those who responded to the approaches of the missionaries. This left the " converts " with no religious home. Con- sequently, to meet the need of those who, having no A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 121 fomial religious connection in these lands, had no standing with their government or in the social or- der, the first evangelical church was organized in Con- stantinople, July I, 1846. In 1847 an official firman was issued by the Sultan acknowledging the new de- nomination, and in 1850, under pressure from foreign governments, the Sultan confirmed the rights of Protestants. It must be remembered in this connec- tion that until 1914, in spite of British "occupation," Egypt has been a recognized part of the Turkish Em- pire. This period of organization was one of anxiety and often of persecution. Many sincere Christians who wished to follow the evangelical faith w^ere ex- communicated by their ancestral churches. Never- theless, great gains were accomplished : schools and hospitals were opened, translations of the scriptures were completed and published, and Christian literature of a general character was written and circulated in considerable quantities. At length the new work was recognized, and missionaries were able to give their attention more or less freely to the enlargement of their task. The third period has been one of expansion. Hav- ing established their right to exist and having discov- ered the most effective means of approach to the various groups, the time came for the missionaries to " lengthen their cords and strengthen their stakes." This last era has witnessed a large increase in mis- sionary forces, the founding of a number of institu- 122 THE NEAR EAST tions of higher learning for both men and women, the opening of orphanages and industrial schools, a great increase in the work of publication and distri- bution, the establishment of medical schools, the train- ing of nurses, and a great advancement in hospital facilities. A still larger opportunity now opens with the lib- eration of forces which the war has brought to the Near East. The whole mission policy must be adapted to meet a changed order. The great values attained in the past by so much of hardship and sacrifice must not be forgotten, and the vision of the possibilities in the new day must not be allowed to grow dim. Missiottary Contact with Eastern Christianity At the conclusion of an especially helpful series of meetings during the Week of Prayer in the American College in Beirut, a Greek student from Cyprus came to me with the following problem : " My father be- longs to the Greek Orthodox Church, my mother is a Protestant ; which Church should I attend ? " It was a real question from an earnest inquirer. How would you have answered it ? My reply was, " Go to that Church which helps you most to have an intimate, personal relationship with God." The student's an- swer was, " I have always been to the Greek Church, but have never heard such words as are spoken in these meetings." In a word this is the story of the contact of mis- A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 123 sions with the Eastern churches. " We find no occasion to touch ecclesiastical matters. We direct men to their own hearts and to the Bible," wrote Dr. Goodell, one of the first and ablest missionaries, and who has been called " the father of the American Mission and the author of its policy." From the be- ginning of the work the theory has been not to prose- lyte, not to multiply sects, not to establish a Protestant or mission church as long as such action could be avoided. Inquirers have constantly been urged to remain in their own churches and there exercise them- selves for the regeneration of their own faiths. This spirit of missions in the Near East in rela- tion to the Eastern churches must always be remem- bered because these questions are constantly arising: why should Christian missionaries be sent to a land where there already exist churches as old as Chris- tianity itself? Why should we try to impose on these Oriental people a Western church? There has been no imposing of a Protestant Church; it has been or- ganized in response to a demand otherwise impossible to meet. In his book, Daybreak in Turkey,'^ Dr. James L. Barton graphically describes the final break of the storm of persecution which left no other course to those touched with a desire for reform. " On Sunday morning, January 25, 1846, at the close of the regular service in the Patriarchal Church (Armenian Grego- rian in Constantinople), darkening the house and draw- > Chapter X\'. 124 THE NEAR EAST ing a great veil in front of the main altar, a bull of excision was read against Priest Vartanes, an evan- gelical, and all of the followers of the ' modern sec- taries.' Excoriated by every conceivable epithet of condemnation, he was expelled from the Church and forbidden as * a devil and the child of the devil to enter into the company of believers.' All the faithful were forbidden to admit him into their dwellings or to receive his salutation or to look upon his face." This was followed by a severe persecution of all who professed evangelical principles. They were to be " forever cast out from society, from every social privilege, .and from the Church." When one re- members that in the Turkish Empire every non-Mos- lem could obtain his rights with the government only through the head of his Church, the severity of this decree of excommunication becomes apparent. The only way to secure for these evangelicals the rights and privileges of citizenship was to form a new organization which should be recognized by the Sul- tan and established by imperial decree as one of the religions of the Empire. Often, walking along the Lebanon Mountains, I have beheld on almost innumerable hilltops the mas- sive stone buildings of monasteries and convents. All the sects of the Eastern church are represented in these institutions. Each building houses a meager handful of monks or nuns counting their beads and attending the various services of the chapels. Most of them are surrounded with extensive lands from the A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 125 incomes of which the monasteries are supported. x\nd as I have looked at those great buildings and rich estates, have listened to the music of monastery bells echoing and re-echoing from hilltop and valley, I have seen a vision " on time's horizon " of those in- stitutions being centers of light and vital power, liv- ing witnesses to the truth divine. An idle vision? Yet that was and has been the purpose of missionary effort for a hundred years. The Protestant Church The Protestant sect is not large in any of the lands of the Levant and probably never will be unless there comes a great accession of members from the non- Christian rehgions. But it has served as a place of refuge for those who could not find an " intimate re- lationship with God " in the old churches, and it has been a leaven for promoting religious reform and for securing applied Christianity in daily life. Since the days of the great ecumenical councils of the church, the religious leaders of these Eastern lands have been insistent upon the philosophical dis- tinctions of theological statements. This strength of purpose has been the great weakness of the East- ern church. One of the dangers which has beset the Protestant Church has been the temptation to introduce another " system " of metaphysical theol- ogy, a Western philosophy, instead of holding to the simplest form of expression of Christlike faith and life. There has also been the danger of trying to measure 126 THE NEAR EAST the succeess of work accomplished by counting the number of accessions to the Protestant roll. Missionary 'Achievements In estimating the achievements of missionary effort there must ever be kept in mind that leavening influence which cannot be reduced to figures or placed in re- ports, yet which constitutes the fundamental work in contact with these Eastern churches. And this influ- ence has been effective, particularly in the Gregorian (Armenian) Church. Before the war Protestant pas- tors frequently preached in Gregorian pulpits, and there were other interchanges of mutual helpfulness. The Bible was circulating freely, and there was a growing spirituality. In the Greek Orthodox Church, especially among the Greek-speaking population, there is one great hin- drance to reform. Religion, with them, is closely linked with patriotism. Many religious customs, rites, and ceremonies are at the same time symbolic of his- torical and national events, so that any attempt to alter or abandon or reform them strikes at the heart of patriotism. This makes the work of a reformer very hard. To remedy this, scientific education is probably the best solution. Oriental Church Membership In all the Eastern churches a child is born into the church. There is no such thing as " joining the - — J-. O i/i £^ be 3 1- C o ^ o u 3 1) A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 127 church." Ever}^ child is a church member. Tlie church meets the individual at every step of his life between birth and death. So the church life becomes the national life. From this it will be seen how difficult is the prob- lem of influencing the old churches, and yet how greatly they are in need of influence. However, the Greek Orthodox Church has been fairly cordial in its relationships to missionaries. It is especially so towards the Anglican or Episcopal Church. What will be the effect of the trials of the war? Will the fellowship of suffering and the ministry of helpfulness break the barriers of ecclesiastical lines and bring about a desire for united spiritual regen- eration, or will the development of new political op- portunities merely intensify the desire for sectarian preferment? Will establishment of local autonomies tend to produce closer cooperation, or will it but intensify the national or racial lines and so arouse a greater spirit of opposition to religious suggestion from abroad? These are questions which Christian people of the West must consider persistently and intelligently in the years following the war. Missionary Contact mith Islam In the history of modern missions probably no more difficult and complicated work has ever been undertaken. The domination of Mohammedan rule has been felt everywhere. Now that rule Is broken. 128 THE NEAR EAST and under the patronage of a League of Nations, the right of "self-determination" is to be given to in- dividuals as well as to races. Under the protection of British influence Egypt and India have offered fields of contact between Chris- tian missions and Islam, and the result has been most gratifying and instructive. But all the time there has remained that great central block of the Turkish Empire where political power and religious law have been one and the same.^ And Arabia, great Arabia, " the cradle of Islam," with its 6,000,000 people solidly and fanatically Mo- hammedan! What a difference the opening of the Suez Canal made to Arabia fifty years ago! What a dift'erence the results of this war makes to Arabia! This mysterious Arabia, with its language, its re- ligion, its wonderfully virile people! Against its border mountains and on its desert sands the waves of surrounding civilization have beaten in vain since time began. It still maintains its splendid iso- lation. Does the Kingdom of the Hedjaz in alliance with Great Britain for the overthrow of the Turk offer an opening door? Does British occupation of Meso- potamia swing wide an Eastern gate? Will Syria, reorganized and evangelized, give approach from the West? Out of Arabia went forth Alohammed and his followers, and they all but overran the world. Has the day of Arabia passed, or is it about to dawn? ^ * Christian Approach fo Islam, Chapter XV. * Arabia, Chapter XXX\'. A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 129 And circling round this " cradle of Islam " stand the races and peoples of the Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India, three quar- ters of them intensely, conscientiously Mohammedan. Intermingled with them for thirteen centuries have lived the priests and members of the Eastern Church. They have held their own, but have not increased. Has Christianity been impotent in the presence of Islam? Has that kingdom, "like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal," lost its power? Has the salt lost its savor, or has the light been hidden under a basket? What has failed for thirteen centuries? Girdling this same land are the beacon-lights at Assiut and Cairo, the Arabic Press of Beirut, the Bible House of Constantinople, the missions at Tabriz, Teheran, and Basrat, Bsiirien, and Aden, and the schools and colleges and medical stations at impor- tant centers of the shifting life of the East. " Modern missions in Turkey are an attempt to show to all in that country what true Christianity means in the individual, in the family, and in society. It is not an attempt to convince the Mohammedan by argument that Mohammed is ' the false prophet ' and that Jesus Christ is God. Such an attempt would result only in failure." ^ However beautiful the rit- uals of the Eastern churches may be and however expressive of a deeply religious significance, they have nevertheless utterly failed in their contact with Mo- ^ Daybreak in Turkey, page 114. 130 THE NEAR EAST hammedanism. Modern missions are trying to give a truer picture of the application of religion to the dailv life, not theoretic but real. The Results of Work among Mohammedans What has already been achieved in this contact with Islam? As far as conversion from Mohamme- danism to Christianity is concerned, it has been en- tirely individual; here a convert and there a convert, sometimes a prominent Moslem scholar or noted leader, sometimes a robber or brigand, sometimes a humble, earnest peasant. Comparatively, in numbers, the list is short. But especially in Egypt, where there has been more freedom of religious choice, there has been considerable success in gaining a hearing, and many Moslems have attended mission meetings. j\Io- hammedan students have been coming in increasing numbers to the mission schools, and the mission clinics, and hospitals minister to fully as many Moslems as Christians. But as for distinct change of religious profession there has been only the occasional convert, no movement of large groups. Yet spiritual achievements are not to be measured by numbers. In the case of Islam, it is the seed growing secretly, " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." It will not be an achieve- ment for missions — though it would look well in reports — to secure a simple transfer of large numbers from the name Mohammedan to Christian. There A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 131 is too much of the mere name " Christian " in the East already. Islam is perhaps God's protest against the name " Christian " with no reality behind it. The real achievement of this century of missions lies in the giving of a new content to the conception of religion. " Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord; but he that doeth the will of my Father," is the needed lesson in the East rather than the mere change of religious name. And to the insistence on this teaching the missionaries may point for the jus- tification of their one hundred years of labor. But there are also material accomplishm.ents of no mean proportions. Beginning at Khartum at the south and dotted along the whole extent of the valley of the Nile, up through Palestine and Syria, across Asia Minor to Constantinople, and eastward along the Black Sea to Tabriz and Teheran in Persia, down the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and even on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea are hundreds of stations occupied by a score of mission societies from America and England. There are many native Protestant churches which are strong, aggressive, and self-supporting, and a much larger number not so far advanced, but the center of new spiritual ideals. Every prominent center has a hos- pital, boarding schools for boys and girls, and a network of primary schools in the surrounding dis- tricts. There are no less than twelve colleges for men and women, there are training schools for nurses, and schools of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, peda- 132 THE NEAR EAST gogy, commerce, engineering, and theology. There are great publishing establishments at Cairo, Beirut, and Constantinople. The Bible has been translated into ever}^ language and is distributed by sale and by gift in every part of every district. And in all these stations there are devoted native preachers and Bible women who are continually going about amid hardships and dangers to proclaim the good news. These advances in civilization have not been ac- complished without overcoming difficulties of every kind. There has been determined opposition on the part of governments and of ecclesiastical authorities and organizations. There have been edicts of ex- communication against helpers, attempts to invalidate Protestant marriage ceremonies, imprisonments, mar- tyrdoms, boycott, and other persecutions both petty and great. Besides these antagonisms it has been necessary to contend with the difficulties of travel, of climate, and of diseases such as cholera, plague, and typhus. There have been long journeys through wild mountainous country infested with robber bands. Time and again the missionaries and their helpers have been face to face with death. Yet despite these discouragements, they have kept a straight course, having but one purpose; to insist on a vital religion coupled with the every-day life. So successful has been this quiet, persistent effort that when the great crisis came during the war, it was to the missionaries that all classes turned for A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 133 counsel and aid. When the part they played in the war is fully written, it will be a record of splendid heroism, perseverance, and faithful service under con- ditions of privation and suffering only partly known as yet. What of tJw New Day? A doctor from Asia Minor writes : " The greatest problem of all, that w^hich grips rny heart with a mighty grip, is how to bring the Gospel to the Mos- lem. Specifically for me, how to bring it to the Turk. I do not say, Shall we do it? That is a foregone conclusion. We must. How shall we do it best, is our problem." After the early surveys of these mission fields and after repeated attempts to get a hearing from Islam, the conclusion was reached that the time had not yet come for reaching Mohammedans. But the growing success of the w^ork of missions in Egypt, Arabia, and Persia has indicated that the day of opportunity is beginning to dawn. Now come the disintegrating effects of social con- tact with Europe, a growing spirit of skepticism on the part of Moslems w^ho have touched Western thought, the revelation of a new^ mean^ng^in religion as seen in Protestant schools and churches, the in- fluence of the spirit of Christ in the ministry of heal- ing, and the martyr witness of the Armenian nation as a whole when a change of faith would have saved life. 134 THE NEAR EAST Last of all comes the final disruption of Islam as a political power. Dr. W. S. Dodd writes from Konia: "The failure of Pan-Islam, the overthrow of the Caliphate and the transfer of the leadership of Islam to the Arabs, the inauguration of some meas- ure of justice in government, and actual religious liberty will give the opportunity for which we have been preparing all these years." To a people who have believed so thoroughly in the doctrine of religious conversion by the sword, the complete overthrow of Moslem political power must come as an argument for Christianity as it W'Ould not come to the Western mind. The triumph of Ger- many would have been an argument for Islam; the defeat of Germany and her allies is an argument for Christ. The victory of the West over the East, too, will mean a great stimulus to the desire for enlight- enment, for education. There still remains the problem of new life in the old forms. Will not the political, social, and indus- trial changes necessitate a new point of view and a more vital contact of the old churches with the new thought and new conditions? More general educa- tion will do much, and as the demand lessens for a mediator between individual and government, which place the church has filled heretofore, the individual will be more free to follow the dictates of his own reason and his own conscience. Religion will then tend to assume its rightful place of individual judg- ment, of individual relationship and responsibility A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 135 to God, unhampered by dictates of personal interest. At this critical time of danger it is the opportunity and privilege of the West to give back to the East the gift of a living, personal, reasonable Christ.^ A Missionary Hero in the War Crisis We were looking at a picture of an evacuation in northern France. The villagers were toiling along the road, some in carts, some in barrows, some carry- ing packs on their backs, others driving cattle before them and leading little children. The blazing homes were behind them; distress and despair were on their faces. My friend turned to me with the remark, "I cannot sense it, can you?" There was a procession not unlike this from the city of Urumia. In spite of all efforts to reassure the people, panic had spread among them and the whole Christian community of the city, some sixty thousand, hurriedly gathered a few belongings and at daylight set forth on the long, long journey of twenty- five days' toilsome march. The flight led through des- olate mountain defiles, past villages filled with hostile peoples, with enemies behind and on either hand seek- ing to plunder and kill. A few articles of necessity tied in a bundle, a bit of food loaded on a donkey, what money could be obtained hidden in a girdle, and the march of death began. A few irregular bands of armed men headed the ^ Christian Approach to Islam, Chapter XX. 136 THE NEAR EAST procession as a guard. Inasmuch as they attacked and pkindered every one before them, the long strag- gling line of women and children at the end of the procession were left to the mercy of hordes of vil- lagers thirsting for revenge. Consequendy there were constant attacks on the rear of the fleeing column. But there was one rear guard. After months of unceasing effort in the city, where he had been the friend, protector, and counselor of all classes, when he saw that panic had seized the terrified people and that the flight from the city had begun, Dr. Shedd hastily gathered a few belongings into a covered Red Cross cart and, accompanied by his wife, set forth with his people determined to shepherd them to the ver}- end. There were frequent attacks from roving bands of Kurds and Turks. Men were killed and stripped, and women were shot. There were constant firing and scenes of untold hardship and suffering. But Dr. Shedd was always on horseback, now cheering the people at this point, now helping a little sick child there, again rallying a few gunmen to beat off an attack, at another time parleying with the enemy. He was everywhere at once. And so the long procession wound its way over plain and mountain and at last neared a small camp of British soldiers on their way to the rescue. Dr. and Mrs. Shedd coming last of all. There had been a week of this journey following .months of similar work in the city. Dr. Shedd was A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 137 worn with fatigue and anxiety. The sixth day out he fell ill with cholera. That night the English camp was attacked, and the procession moved on again through the darkness, over a rough road. Except for her servants, Mrs. Shedd was alone through the night vigil with her husband. There was no medicine, no doctor, not even a lantern to shed a ray of light on the sick one. With Mrs. Shedd hoping, longing for assistance, the cart rumbled on; but before dawn Dr. Shedd had breathed his last. In the early morning, wath a little adz and their bare hands they hollowed out a grave on the moun- tainside, read a few words from St. Paul's chapter on the Resurrection, and hurried on. A rude cross on a mountain cliff, a rough pencil sketch by a British army officer, a scarcely perceptible mound of earth by the roadside, these are the guides to the grave of William A. Shedd, missionary of Urumia, Persia. " Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life." Dr. Shedd had entered upon his life work w^ith the incomparable asset of a perfect knowledge of the language and the people. He was one of them, for he was born in Persia, being the eldest child of American missionaries in Urumia. He knew well the Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Syriac languages and was a thorough student of Hebrew and Arabic. For twenty-six years he labored at his post as treasurer, author, administrator, teacher, preacher, counselor. 138 THE NEAR EAST He was trusted by the people and was the poHtical representative of the mission with the government and the political guide and counselor of the Syrian people. He was permitted to preach the Gospel not only in the evangelical but also in the pulpits of the ancient Syriac churches. The Presbyterian Board writes, " We have suffered the loss of one of the ablest and most useful missionaries ever sent out by the churches of America to the foreign field." One might rewrite the eleventh chapter of Hebrews with well-known names from modern annals of Chris- tian workers in Bible lands, choosing a score of heroes from the living and the dead. Then the chap- ter should close with the ever modern, stirring appeal of the twelfth chapter, " Therefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, ... let us run with patience the race that is set be- fore us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith." VI WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION CHAPTER SIX WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION AT the busiest corner of the crowded bazaar stands -^^ the town mosque. Through the open door it looks bright and clean with its simple white-washed walls and its fresh straw matting and scattered prayer rugs on the floor. From the little gallery near the top of the shapely minaret the muezzin sends forth his call to prayer, and the faithful, in shop or field or home, leave off working for a few moments and observe the prescribed form of prayer. From nearby shops and balconied houses a few of the most devout come to the mosque, perform the ceremonial ablutions in the little stone-curbed pool of the courtyard, and punctiliously go through the prayers with the imam who, in his black robe and great white turban, looks the picture of dignity and decorum. The School in the Mosque Beside the mosque is the schoolroom. The stone floor here is also covered with straw matting. The 141 142 THE NEAR EAST schoolmaster, a white-turbaned mullah, sits cross- legged on the floor. Around him are grouped twenty- five, thirty, forty boys, all cross-legged on the floor. Before the teacher is spread an open book, and he is swaying slightly forward and backward while intoning verses from the Koran. Following their leader, the boys also are moving gently back and forth while they repeat the words of the master. Occasionally some young mischief shies a green berry at a fly dozing be- side the window or at a lizard that is inquisitive enough to put his head in at the open door. The boy may get a sharp rap over the knuckles from the ever- ready rod or a box on the ear, then the incident is closed and the lesson goes on. Reading and reciting verses from the Koran, a little arithmetic, and instruction in forming the beau- tiful Arabic letters make up the curriculum of one of these primitive schools, and constitute the only educa- tion received by the majority of the youth of Moslem lands. The memory method is followed exclusively. The pupils learn to repeat by rote the assigned passages. Discipline is maintained by means of stern repressive measures. That student is highest who sits the stillest and repeats the most glibly. A great deal of the work is carried on in unison, and studying in general is done in a monotone. One can detect the presence of a mosque school some distance away by the droning sound of many voices going through the lessons of the day. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 143 The Moslem University Now enlarge the dome on the village mosque, add two or three minarets, increase the number of students from twenty to ten thousand, and you have the great Moslem University of Cairo. There are the same white-turbaned teachers, and fundamentally the same curriculum : the Koran, the study of Islamic tradition, commentaries on mathematics, logic, philosophy, and disputation. This form of education is thorough enough for its own purpose, which is to produce a student who can write faultless Arabic, who can quote whole chapters from the Koran and the traditions, and who can dis- cuss a point of law ad infinitiun; but it is an educa- tion that is looking to the past, not to the future. It is an education with no interrogation point. There is no challenging of theories, no questioning of tradi- tions, no outlook into social movements, no testing of accepted doctrines by new discoveries. This education which glorifies and perpetuates the old, opposes the new. The School in the Church Under a great spreading oak in Syria, beside a gray stone church perhaps centuries old, is gathered a group of boys, seated on stones or on the ground. It is summer, and the black-robed priest has moved his school from the dimly-lighted, stuffy schoolroom ad- joining the church to this cool, picturesque spot. What 144 THE NEAR EAST a place for nature study, with birds and bees, with leafy trees and blossoming plants! Here Nature her- self provides the text-books for geograph)- and geolog}-; spread before the very eyes of the pupils are great gorges, rocky ledges, mountain streams, and in the distance, the sea. O for a schoolmaster with the instinct of Pestalozzi ! But what are the lessons these boys are learning? Questions and answers from the church catechism, memory verses from some ancient father whose words are repeated from a worn-out book, writing, and simple numbers. When the child's eyes wander per- force to the place where bees are gathering honey or where the mountain stream is grinding away at the limestone ledge, a sudden thump from a ruler, or a sharp reprimand calls back the wandering attention to the serious work of the class. This is the old church school, differing from the school in the mosque only in the books used and in the dress of the teacher. One teacher who had been master of the village school for forty years used to boast that he had worn out a table every year with the thumps of his ferrule upon it. But he was held in universal respect by the village, and parents would never think of having their children taught by another master. But at length, Father Time came to the rescue of the children and gathered him home. Still it was a school, and boys and girls have learned to read and write and add and subtract and to this extent have been enabled to share WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 145 somewhat in that " spiritual inheritance " said by edu- cationists to be the rightful possession of every child born into the world. The Armenian Schools When I went to Syria, I took with me all of my books. Among them was an encyclopedia. The Turk- ish censor looked over the first volume and came to the map of Asia Minor. As soon as his eye fell on the word " Armenia " printed across the eastern por- tion of the map as one of the geographical divisions, he took his pocket-knife and carefully scratched out the name, explaining to me, " There is no such place as ' Armenia.' " Yet in spite of this severity, the Turkish govern- ment has permitted the Armenian people to maintain an educational system. Under the name of " The Union of Armenian Schools," a rather extensive sys- tem has been maintained, closely connected with, and largely supported by the Gregorian Church. The schools were chiefly of primary grade, and in most cases the curriculum was limited. Many of the teachers were poorly prepared, and yet it was a school system and it did provide for instruction in the ele- mentary subjects. As a result, it served to place the Armenians on a much higher level intellectually than their Turkish neighbors. There w^ere also a number of high schools, modeled after the French pattern, which gave a fair education in the liberal arts. But 146 THE NEAR EAST there was a constant struggle against lack of funds and interference on the part of the government. The Greek Schools According to statistics presented by the Greek Pa- triarch in Constantinople, there were in Asia Minor before the war 1,464 schools for Greek boys and 366 schools for girls. In these schools there was an at- tendance of i85,CMDO pupils. Like the Armenians, the Greeks support their own school system by self-taxa- tion, but they have suffered less opposition from the government. Religion and racial nationality are ver}' closely associated among them, and their educational system, in which they have imitated the schools of Greece, ministers directly to this. They have met very well the needs of the Greek communities and have maintained some high schools of good standard. These two systems, the Armenian and the Greek, are the outstanding examples of native school systems and are deserving of particular credit for having been maintained under constant difficulties. The Turkish Educational System Taking the Turkish people as a whole throughout these lands, it is safe to say that not more than twenty in every hundred are able to read and write, and that would include all who can perhaps recognize only a WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 147 few words and form a few letters. Simple as the schools are, connected with every mosque and church as they may be, still not over twenty per cent of the children ever come within reach of these crude ad- vantages. Among certain groups of the populations not over ten per cent can read and write. There is no compulsory school law, and the limited resources of the people tend to force the children into training for a trade as soon as they can begin to use a tool. This course produces skilful hand-workers, but mental dwarfs. Besides, to have people educated has not been in the interests of an absolute and tyrannical government in state and in church. "According to official statistics in 191 1, the Gov- ernment reported 36,230 schools and 1,331,000 stu- dents. This seems, from other accounts, to be much overestimated. " There is no well-developed national education in the Ottoman Empire, owing to the fact that large por- tions of the population belong to subject and non- Moslem races and the schools provided by the Gov- ernment, while open to all, are Mohammedan and, as a matter of fact, are not patronized by the Chris- tians. " The Turkish educational system is good in plan, but poor in practice." ^ Across the street from our home there was estab- lished, during the war, one of the new government schools. It occupied the second floor of a dwelling ^ Samuel T. Button in Reconstruction in Turkey. 148 THE NEAR EAST house and consisted of perhaps fifty boys up to the age of twelve. The schoohnaster in charge was of middle age and seemed reasonably well qualified for his work. The military idea was, of course, dominating all gov- ernment enterprises at the time. The boys had their regular marching movements every morning, and they were taught the military salute and the proper cheers for the flag. Much time was spent in learning national songs. The native language of every one of these boys was Arabic, yet all of the military drill, the teaching of patriotic songs, and a good deal of the school work was conducted in Turkish. It was a part of the gov- ernment policy to insist upon the use of the Turkish language throughout the Empire even among groups to whom it was a strange tongue. The curriculum in this school was ambitious. Be- sides the study of Turkish, there were classes in arith- metic, geography, history, science, religion, and other studies. The system of which it was a part w^as excellently planned. Based on an old law of fifty years ago and remodeled just before the war, it provided for pri- mary', secondary, and high schools, with university courses in law, medicine, theolog}', and so forth. It was not with the plan of the system that trouble lay, but in its execution. And that is where every Turkish government has failed. They can make a brave showing on paper and in reports, but not in practise. Yet the Turkish educational system made phe- WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 149 nomenal progress in the twenty years preceding the war. One of its outstanding features was its provision for the education of girls. When missionaries first went to Turkey, the common behef was that it was impossible for a girl to learn to read, that she was created with a mind incapable of school instruction. For the government, therefore, to recognize officially and to plan regularly for the instruction of girls was a most significant act. What might have been worked out in this educa- tional system had not the war intervened is problemati- cal. There were some hopeful signs, but judging from the historic Turkish administrative inefficiency, the outlook was not overpromising. Schools in Persia In a previous chapter we have noted that a few years ago there was a great revival of national life and desire for progress in Persia, manifested in a com- plete turnover of the government, the establishment of a parliarnent, and the entire reorganization of the fi- nancial system. Through foreign political jealousies the reforms failed to carry, however. In like manner there was an awakening to the needs of educational reform. Popular demands were made that the native schools should enrich their curriculums. The people were no longer satisfied with the methods of the mosques and the meager and medieval training given there. There was a realization that unless their 150 THE NEAR EAST young people were educated according to the best of Western methods, there was no possibility of Persia ever coming again into the front rank of enlightened nations. As a result, a beginning was made by an attempt to introduce into the Moslem schools the study of science, geography, and other up-to-date subjects. This soon caused a decided reaction, however. The ecclesiastics protested so vigorously that the new studies were banished. But the people of Persia were not to be so easily discouraged; if they could not have in their own schools that which they knew they needed, they were resolved to obtain it elsewhere. Then began a great movement toward the mission schools. It was discov- ered that right in their midst had been developed a system giving exactly what was needed, and that it was superintended and guided by Americans whom they could trust. The demand on the mission schools and colleges in Persia became greater than could be met. Everywhere the missionaries were faced with the immediate need of expansion to meet this opportun- ity for which they had been building for seventy-five years. But as must be written across every descrip- tion of conditions in the Near East, " Then came the war." This opportunity in Persia, however, is not closed, it is only postponed for a very brief time. The Ameri- can schools will soon take up their regular work with renewed fervor and with tremendously increased de- WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 151 mands laid upon them. Persia is awake. She must have education. The Persian people are of our own race. Persia holds in her hand the future of great neighboring territories, of Turkistan, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan. Already a railway has been pushed from India to the eastern Persian frontier. It will not be long before this is connected up with railways building to Baghdad. The American Christian hospi- tal and the American Christian school, if pushed to- day, may win Persia for the Kingdom of Christ. Egyptian Schools One of the first things British influence accom- plished in Eg}^pt was a complete reorganization of the educational system. This system has been greatly criticized, and it is not perfect, but considering the distance it has advanced since its establishment, it can be looked upon with a great deal of satisfaction. In every town of any size there is a government school under the direct supervision of the department of education. These are public schools for both boys and girls, well housed in modern buildings, with up- to-date apparatus, and teachers fairly trained. This gives to Egypt by far the best school advantages of any land in the Near East. The system begins with kinder- garten and primary and culminates in professional schools of medicine, agriculture, and law. Necessarily a government system cannot give re- ligious instruction, and so there is developing a type 152 THE NEAR EAST of general education without the attendant steadying power of wisely directed religious teaching. But the government of Egypt places no obstacles in the way of religious teaching on the part of others. So, running parallel with these government schools, are the mission schools both British and American, with their complete systems from primar}- to college. The Americans, under the direction of the United Presbyterian Board, have established a splendid line of schools along the Nile. Their college for men in Upper Egy^pt at Assiut is, like the well-known col- leges of Turkey, a power in the life of all Upper Egy^pt. There is the college for women in Cairo, in buildings suited to the place it occupies in the educa- tional life of the capital city where it touches the high- est circles of life among the women of Cairo and Eg}-pt. And now, as the war clouds clear, there is being founded the American University of Cairo. This is the answer of the United Presbyterians to the enlarged opportunity in Egypt, and it indicates their determina- tion to leave nothing undone to meet the demands of the new day there. The valley of the Nile is a storehouse of wealth untold. But wealth without godliness has ever been the ruin of this mar\'elous countr}\ These schools and colleges and this Christian university of Cairo are a determined attempt to throw into Eg>-pt the regenerat- ing forces of Christian character in such strength that Egypt shall this time be saved. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 153 French Schools French being the recognized language of diplomacy and commerce, schools teaching that language have found ready acceptance in the Near East. There are a number of good French secular schools, maintained by a French Society that seek to promote the use of the French language and ideals, but which have no religious connection and do not permit any religious instruction. There are the schools maintained by various re- ligious orders. The Freres, for example, have an ex- tensive system of good schools especially in Egypt and Syria. Their language of instruction is French, but they give good courses in the local languages and are usually efficient in mathematics and sciences. The Jesuits, driven out of France, have found refuge either in the colonies or in foreign lands where French political influence predominates. They are well established in Syria where their University of St. Joseph in Beirut is an efficient institution. Their teaching of the French language is superb, and their schools of medicine and pharmacy, being affiliated with schools in France, maintain a high standard. They have alsQ a fine school in Archeology for the study of the excellent materials found in the Levant. Before the war the French Catholic work main- tained more than 500 schools with over 50,000 pupils. There were schools for both boys and girls, and the system, extending from lowest primary to university. 154 THE NEAR EAST was to be found well established in all parts of the Near East. Unfortunately, however, this French mis- sion work was usually used for political propaganda on behalf of French interests. German Schools Before the war there were a number of German mis- sion schools in various parts of the East, especially in Turkey. After the war began and other European schools were forced to close, German schools in- creased with great rapidity. They placed special em- phasis on language study and the study of mathematics and exact sciences. Schools were opened for both boys and girls. While before the war these German schools were chiefly connected with religious institu- tions in Germany, both Catholic and Protestant, dur- ing the war new schools were undoubtedly under gov- ernment patronage and support, and the schoolmasters were of German government appointment, often being German officers who had been incapacitated by mili- tary' service. A few schools were also maintained by religious so- cieties of Russia, Denmark, and Italy. Mission Schools Missionary experience has demonstrated that next to medical practice, schools are the most effective means of gaining a hearing in the lands of the Near WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 155 East. Superstition and fanaticism are the children of ignorance, hence the proper schooHng of the young is the surest means of overcoming these twin evils. The estabHshment of elementary schools, therefore, be- came of first importance. Except in certain details of racial custom, Mrs. Shedd's description of a Persian mission school is typical of those in the Near East. " Until the opening of our mission school, there was nothing for Mohamedan girls in Urumia that could be called a school. The poorer girls were uninstructed ; the girls of wealthy families were taught Persian in their homes by a mullah, but litde else. " For twenty years Miss VanDuzee had struggled to keep her little sewing class together, cheerfully ready to begin again after each attempt to break it up. At last it grew in numbers and regularity to such a degree that it was attached to our school for Chris- tian girls. " On clear mornings almost as soon as the sun had tipped the opposite mountains and flooded the plain with light, the girls were on their way to the school of the Khannums (foreign ladies). Watches are very desirable as gifts for the wedding dowery, but why trouble with timepieces when you have an unerring time-keeper in the sky, which measures out morning, noon, and night and the hours before and after. Minutes do not count. " Slowly they file into the room enveloped in brightly colored or black, all-enveloping chundras. 156 THE NEAR EAST Gracefully they slip off their low shoes at the door and seat themselves in rows on the carpeted floor. H)Tnns are sung with the help of a baby organ, a Bible story is told, a short prayer, and they separate to the various classrooms. " Some of the chundras are discarded, for now, in- stead of the long trousers and short full ballet skirts, many of the girls wear dresses made by their own hands in school. The larger girls retain their chun- dras, for their faces must not be seen by any male creature. " Two thirds of the school go to the primary room, and the girls seat themselves on the floor with their little bundle of books before them. According to grades they are instructed in reading, number work, ^vriting, sewing, singing, and calisthenics with games out of doors. Here for the first time they learn the joy of free play. In the primary grades they are in- structed in Turkish, the vernacular of northern Persia. " The older girls are seated at desks, and in addition to these lessons are taught Persian, English, grammar, and elementary geography. Their teacher in Persian is a white-turbaned mullah of age and dignity and suf- ficiently devoid of masculine charm to make a safe in- structor for Moslem girls, with a chaperone. He be- lieves that Atlas carried the world on his shoulders and is shocked at the unorthodox but simple scientific ex- planation of the earth's movements and atmospheric changes. He is not much of a teacher according to our WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 137 estimate, and when the girls get too gay, wildly calls for the chaperone to help. " All other native teachers are Assyrian Christians, graduates of Fiske Seminary. " The most valuable and interesting development is the moral and spiritual growth which is marked both in individuals and in the school as a whole." British Schools Of course the whole government educational system of Egypt was of British origin and control. But aside from this an important part of the work which various missionary societies of Great Britain had established extensively through Eg>-pt, Syria, and Palestine, was in the schools. They confined their work largely to elementary and secondary grades, cooperating with the American mis- sions in the college work. They also conducted nor- mal and industrial schools. The work in all their schools was of a high grade, and special emphasis was placed on securing results in character building. Hon- esty and integrity have ever been the watchwords of British character, and their schools have been success- ful in imparting these elements to their pupils. American Schools There was a group of five persons around the lunch table in the old Massasoit Hotel of Springfield, Mass., in October, 1862. The group consisted of a distin- 158 THE NEAR EAST guished New York City merchant, his son and wife, and a missionary and his wife from Syria. It was after a session of the American Board of Foreign Mis- sions where the missionary had made a plea for in- creased forces in the Syria field. He had just re- turned to America after witnessing one of the periodic massacres in Turkey where he had been signally suc- cessful in distributing relief by employing the people in road construction and other useful public works. At the lunch table he had set forth with simple earnest- ness and eloquence the opportunities for higher edu- cational work in the Near East, pointing out the awakened interest in Syria and Eg}'pt, the strategic location for reaching the Arabic-speaking world, and the call for an American collegiate institution. His presentation was so convincing that the merchant turned to his son with the exclamation, " Stuart, this seems promising, we must look into it." From that remark has grown a life-long family interest and sup- port, and the equipment and work of the Syrian Prot- estant College of Beirut, Syria. During a half century this missionary college has expanded into a university of a thousand students granting degrees in Arts, Commerce, Pharmacy, Den- tistry, and Medicine. Its students represent a dozen different nationalities, and its graduates hold influen- tial positions throughout the Sudan, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Among the number are found teachers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, merchants, statesmen. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 159 The same act of legislature of New York State that granted incorporation to the college for Syria in 1864 granted the same for Robert College in Constanti- nople/ For many years the same president presided over both boards of trustees. Dr. Daniel Bliss, presi- dent of the Syrian Protestant College, and Dr. George Washburn, president of Robert College, were room- mates at Amherst College. What the latter college has done for the young men of Bulgaria and Asia Minor, the former has done for the young men of the Arabic-speaking countries. Both institutions are chil- dren of the American Board of Foreign Missions though now independently incorporated and endowed. A similar institution for the higher education of women, a direct outgrowth of the missions of the American Board, is the Constantinople College for Women. It occupies a commanding site on the Bos- phorus and is finely equipped for its work. Its in- fluence has been most remarkable, and the young women who have attended its classes have come from every class, race, and religion of the great city of Constantinople and adjacent lands. It has had a great share in bringing about the awakening desire for education on the part of Turkish women and has dem- onstrated beyond a doubt the capabilities and capacities of the women of the Levant for the best that education can give. But these three colleges, while typical, do not stand alone as representative of America's gift to the higher ' Fifty Years in Constantinople, page 24. 160 THE NEAR EAST education of the East. From Assiut to Teheran is a circle of institutions, some perhaps not so well known as those already mentioned, but all centers of light, influence, and power for the districts in which they are placed. Of the well-known American Christian col- leges in Armenia and Turkey there are Euphrates Col- lege at Harpoot, Anatolia College at Marsovan, Cen- tral Turkey College at Aintab, St. Paul's College at Tarsus, Central Turkey Girls' College at Marash, In- ternational College at Smyrna and Teachers College at Sivas. Every year hundreds of students have been in attendance at these colleges and have been going back to their communities as life centers for awaken- ing thought. It is interesting to note in passing that, in October, 19 1 9, Anatolia College resumed work which was en- tirely suspended in May, 19 16. A large part of the main building is wrecked beyond repair but there are one hundred and fifty boys on the ground all eager to begin work. A Complete System In founding colleges the missionaries did not, how- ever, begin at the top of the educational ladder and work down. The colleges were rather the outgrowth of the widespread system of lower grade schools or- ganized throughout these Eastern lands. It is a school system that has its roots in the village primary school and its trunk and branches in the intermediate and high schools. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 161 " Since the early part of the nineteenth century, American missionaries have been planting schools all over the Near East and to-day they are a great power in the land. No foreign nation can claim so disinterested an attitude towards the people, Moslem and Christian alike, as can America. Her purpose in education has been entirely humanitarian and is entirely free from any political or commercial bias. . . . This has been recognized by the Government as well as by the people and the Americans have in consequence en- joyed universal respect and esteem. They have been able to include in their schools representatives of all the various nationalities found in the Ottoman Empire. . . . " The equipment of these mission schools is varied, but on the whole, very good indeed. Professors, in- structors, and doctors connected with them are the representatives of the best universities in this country. The standard of scholarship is good and the curricula are based upon American ideas, but cleverly adapted to the needs of the country. . . . " Almost as much thought has been given by Ameri- cans to the education of girls and women in Turkey as to men and boys. A great many mission schools are educating girls on an equality with their brothers." ^ * Reconstruction in Turkey, pages 41, 42, 43. 162 THE NEAR EAST What American Schools are Producing A short time before the war I was in Cairo and visited, in the middle of the afternoon, the printing office of one of the great city dailies. It was inter- esting to see the news from European agencies, flashed from all over the world, being set up in the curious Arabic characters. Then, as the time for the last edi- tion closed, to see the molten lead poured into the electrotype mold, the turn of a switch that set the presses in motion, and a few minutes later to hear automobiles scurrying away to the confines of the city and to the railway stations with this daily journal, just as in London or New York. It was the magic of the West under Oriental manipulation; and all ef- ficiently accomplished. Then I thought of the two men at the head of that publishing house. I thought of them as recognized through all that Eastern world as authorities in liter- ature and science and administration. I thought of them as men whose opinions and influence reached from Cairo to Khartum, and to London as well, on all questions concerning the progress of the land of the Nile. I thought of them also as boys in a little vil- lage on the lower slopes of Mount Hermon in Syria, beginning their education, primer and Bible in hand, in an obscure mission school, later as students and teachers in the American college, and now most dis- tinguished alumni. And such is the tale of many a one who has re- WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 163 ceived his earliest training in a little village school, has there had awakened his thirst for education, and found the possibility of satisfying it in the complete system from primary to university. One day there appeared at Beirut a Moslem Tartar from near the Ural Mountains. He had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca and returning had entered the great University of Cairo, El-Azhar. He was plan- ning to be a teacher in the Tartar Moslem school, and this university was the natural place to seek training. But the teaching did not satisfy his intellectual long- ing. He heard of the American college in Beirut and resolved to go there and try it. Though placed in the lowest class of the Preparatory, — and he was well along in years, — he struggled on until the degree of B.A. was fully earned in the Normal Training course. " I have remained here," he said, " because I like your method." His last address was, " Troitsk, Russia, Principal of Tartar High School." He was translat- ing the college text-books into Tartar and had in- fluenced a score of other young men to enter the college. And then came the war. Educational Problems In 1914 the Turkish Empire proclaimed a new edu- cational law. One of the provisions of this law made it illegal to require attendance at religious exercises or instruction on the part of any student differing in 164 THE NEAR EAST religious faith from that of the school or college. Now it has been the universal practice in mission schools to require this religious instruction. The Bible has been a text-book throughout the course, and chapel services have been held daily. This was done in the belief that education was not complete and was wholly- unsafe without religious education. The whole mind must be trained. As Christian institutions, the only training possible was Christian training, not in a nar- row proselyting sense, nor in a medieval catechising and memorizing method, but on broad, reasonable lines giving the best in a free, open way, with the spirit of inquiry always present. The American missionary colleges have always stood for the open mind on all questions whether of science or history or religion. The laboratory, the library, and the classroom have in- vited free and thorough investigation. The Christian faith has never feared the interroga- tion point. While Turkish law may have passed away, it has nevertheless left this problem before our mission insti- tutions as to the best means of bringing religious train- ing to the minds of the students entrusted to their care. There is a rapidly increasing percentage of Moham- medan students. The question is still being studied during these days of readjustment, as to what is the most effective method. Another problem is that of relationship to govern- ment systems. The Near East has, on the whole, al- lowed a great deal of freedom to foreign institutions. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 165 As long as they went quietly about their business the central governments concerned themselves but little with the working methods. Undoubtedly the war will bring a tightening up of all administrative machinery. There have been no public school systems worthy the name except in Egypt, but now every government is bound to establish one, and along modern lines. How can the missionary system be related to these systems in such a way as to preserve its own life and methods and at the same time so influence the public systems as to assure in them those elements of character building without which education is vain ? Then there is the problem of vocational schools. The new day offers special opportunity for the train- ing of boys and girls for agriculture, domestic science, arts and crafts, pedagogy, nursing, together with the more specialized branches of higher training in engi- neering, mining, medicine, and law. Is it within the province of missionary educational work to undertake these special branches? It is education coupled with the daily life, it is a wide open door just now. To- morrow the door may be closed. Shall the missionary enter? And lastly there is the problem of money and men. Before the war the teacher of a village school who received six to fifteen dollars a month was well paid. That day will never return. At once, then, the mis- sion schools must face a large increase of expense in salaries, not in the villages alone but more especially in the higher schools and colleges. If, too, these new 166 THE NEAR EAST opportunities are to be met, it means without delay larger and better equipment in buildings, apparatus, and teaching force. The problem of money demands immediate solution for the new day. But the work requires men and women and requires them now. These must be not only the native teacher of the countr}'. Think of what the United States Government did for the school system of the Philip- pine Islands in sending over hundreds of trained American men and women, of the results accomplished in a brief space of time by this concentrated effort at the psychological moment. These are the days for concentrated drives. The moment has now arrived throughout the lands of the Near East. All the provinces of the former Turkish Empire and Persia are about to undergo a complete reconstruction. The school staffs have been depleted during the war and instead of beginning the new era with increased forces it is necessary to start under a handicap. Where, in all the world, can a few years or a whole life be invested that will bring larger returns than in the education of these people of Bible lands? And the need is now. American missionary educationists stand at the head of all trusted advisers for the people of Nearer Asia. It is the psychological time for writing into the new life the essentials of Christian character through education. " In a word, Christian education alone can give the leadership that will recreate Nearer Asia. WESTERN INFLUENCE ON EASTERN EDUCATION 167 And the facts of the Near East prove that such leader- ship can be so developed.'' ^ When Prince Feisal, son of the King of the Hedjaz, was asked about the influence of the Syrian Protestant College upon his countrymen, he replied : " Dr. Daniel Bliss, the founder of the college, was the grandfather of Syria; and his son, Howard Bliss, the present presi- dent, is the father of Syria. Without the education that this college has given, the struggle for freedom would never have been won. The Arabs owe every- thing to these men." ' Why is it that with one accord these people turn to America as the mandatory which they all desire to aid them in their reorganization? They answer, "Be- cause we know of the spirit of America through the schools and colleges they have given us, not for politi- cal propaganda, but simply in a spirit of helpfulness." * The Riddle of Nearer Asia, pages 200-303. ' Outlook, z April, 1919- VII THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS i I CHAPTER SEVEN THE world's crossroads IT is worth while to give attention to the geographi- cal position which the former Turkish Empire occupied. Note the boundaries: Black Sea on the north, Persia and the Persian Gulf on the east, Egypt on the south, with the Mediterranean and ^gean seas on the west. At the eastern door lies the Desert of Arabia, with its world-old caravan trails. Scarcely any portion of the Empire is more than two hun- dred miles from the seacoast; while the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are navigable for six hundred miles from the sea, crossing that richest of agricultural plains and penetrating almost to the very heart of the Empire. The city of Constantinople, v;hich has always been recognized as the strategic place for a world capital, and which has, perhaps, the most wonderful harbor of any city in the world, lies within this Empire. This is the bridge between three great continents: Asia, the continent of the past, Europe, the continent of the present, and Africa, the continent of the future. 172 THE NEAR EAST All trade routes between the East and the West, be- tween the North and the South, from one of these continents to the other, from the fields where raw material is produced to the factories and markets of the West, must lie across or border upon this won- derful country. There are harbors sufficient, and the climate is such that the whole year is free from devastating storms. It is well to recall also the history of the people of this land in relation to trade. It was the Phoeni- cians from Tyre and Sidon who sent their fleets of merchant ships to all the known world. It was from the shores of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands that the Greeks sailed forth, carrying their trade and commerce to every port. And the Argonauts, in their search for the Golden Fleece, visited the northern coast of this land. But it is not only in ancient history and mythology that the people have gained a name for trade. For years every European nation maintained its repre- sentatives and its warehouses in the city of Aleppo that they might benefit from the trade with the East which centered in that city. In our modern days the Armenians, the Greeks, and the Syrians, finding no adequate opportunity for trade at home, have gone to e\'ery country in the world, and wherever they have settled, they have been successful merchants. Now let their own country once be opened by the construction of proper highways, railways, and har- bors, let the products of the soil be brought forth THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 173 in their possible abundance, let the riches of the mines be loosed and these people will find at home a field for their endeavors and their abilities which they will not be slow to seize upon. We shall then see the glory of the ancient merchant princes restored to the land of the Phoenicians and the Greeks. When the agricultural possibilities are developed, the mineral deposits are properly worked, the power of the rivers is transformed into electrical energy, and the manufacturing facilities have been utilized, then this natural resource of geographical position will be appraised at its full value in the list of the assets of the Near East. It is not fancy or imagination, it is not excess of enthusiasm or dreaming, but it is the logic of estab- lished facts that assures for this country a golden future. Her resources have been little measured, and her possibilities have been far from adequately esti- mated. This country must no longer be left poverty- stricken and oppressed, and the world deprived of all her potential wealth for the feeding and the cloth- ing and enrichment, not only of the people to whom it rightly belongs, but to all the world who will share in its prosperity.^ Religions Pilgrims In 1904 the World Sunday School Convention was held in the city of Jerusalem. A whole steamer load ' The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Chapter VIII. 174 THE NEAR EAST of Sunday-school officers and workers from America together with delegates from other lands, not only gathered for convention exercises in Jerusalem, but also spent several days visiting mission schools and stations in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. After the Edinburgh Missionary Conference a party of seventy leaders and delegates from that memorable gather- ing journeyed to the Near East and toured through the countries observing at first hand peoples and re- ligious conditions and studying missionary work. Every spring Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Con- stantinople are visited by several thousand tourists from Europe and America, who wish to see the sights of these ancient lands, and they come, most of them, for the first time into direct contact with missions at work. Every year great crowds of pilgrims from all Christian lands go to Jerusalem, the Jordan, and Galilee. Thousands of Russian peasants, religious devotees from central Europe, South America, Aus- tralia, and. in fact, from every land annually make the tour of Christian shrines in the Holy Land. One proof of the thousands among the Mohamme- dans who make these pilgrimages is found in the number to whose name is prefixed " Hajj." There is Hajj-Ali, Hajj-Abdu, Hajj-Ibrahim,— the title having been earned by making the pilgrimage to the Holy City. For all orthodox Aloslems this means Mecca, with its thousand memories of " the Prophet " and Moslem history; for the Shi'ahs of Persia and beyond, it is Kerbela, only less sacred than Mecca B}' railroads built and projected, Asia, Europe, and Africa, the continents of the past, the present, and the future are joined at Aleppo, the world's crossroads. Trade routes from East to West, from North to South, from raw material to finished product, must pass through this wonderful country. There is a need for missionaries, for educators, for doctors, and an equally urgent need for Christian business men THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 175 itself, out on the desert west of Baghdad, where Hussein, son of AH, grandson of Mohammed, lies buried. Two hundred thousand pilgrims visit this single shrine every year. What is the significance of this stream of tourists and pilgrims from every country of the globe con- stantly meeting and mingling and passing over this bridge of the nations? Has it no strategic signifi- cance for mission opportunity? ^ An International World Center The influence of the strategic position occupied by these lands of the Near East is no less great in the world of politics. Ever since the days when the Crusaders of western Europe turned their thoughts toward the Holy City of the East, these lands have lain at the crux of all world politics. And the very geographical position which they occupy must per- force continue them at the center of all international relationships. Just as the geographical position de- termines to a great extent commercial prosperity, so also that same position determines political impor- tance. It is eight centuries since the Turk first invaded southwestern Asia and knocked at the door of Europe, but ever since that time relationships with the Turk- ish Empire have largely determined European state- craft. Egypt is the gate to Central Africa, Persia ' The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Prologue. 176 THE NEAR EAST is the bulwark of southwestern Asia, and Constanti- nople is the natural avenue of approach to eastern Europe. The Round Table, the foremost British Quarterly on politics, in speaking of this region and the possi- bility of America acting as mandatory, contends that " The key to the problem of regenerating Russia lies not in Siberia, but in Russia itself. If once America shoulders the task of creating order in the Middle East, she wdll buttress Russia from the south, for order, no less than anarchy, is infectious. As steward of the Near East, America can extend to the blind giant the neighborly hand of a friendship which is open to no suspicion." What is said here regarding this land as a point of influence upon Russia is equally true of influence upon the Balkan States. It is also a point of vantage from which to lead and develop Central Africa, and to guide the people of those great Turkestan plains who have time and again inundated Europe with their virile hordes of Asiatic Huns. Wherever commerce and politics find their strategic center, there also must Christian missions find theirs. It was not by accident that the purest conception of religion found expression among these people of the Levant, or that the Founder of Christianity was born at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. There have been no accidents, either in political or religious history when viewed in the perspective. And while the vital force of the Christian Church has for THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 177 a time been transferred to Western lands, certainly the strategic base for its main operations lies not in this Western world, but on that bridge which unites the three great continents of the eastern hemi- sphere/ More than a thousand years ago, so the story runs, the Emperor of Russia set out to choose an appro- priate religion for his new Empire. His emissaries visited Rome and Constantinople and other religious centers. Impressed with all they saw, they recom- mended that the Church of Christ, as seen in the East, should be the model upon which their national re- ligion should be founded; and so the Greek Orthodox Church became the church of Russia. It grew to have a hold upon the imagination and superstition of the ignorant Russian peasants. It ruled their re- ligious life as autocratically as ever the Czar and his nobles ruled the politics of the nation. But now has come the great breaking up; the ice has cracked, and the mighty current is carrying away the old order. The Church, as an organization, is no more in Russia; yet these people are instinctively religious. As soon as they setde down after the wild storm which is sweeping their national and domestic life, their religious temperament will again manifest itself, and the Russian people will be open as never before to vital Christian influence. There is no other place from which there is such ready access to the heart of Russia as up the long rivers which empty » Christian Approach to Islam, Chapter V. 178 THE NEAR EAST into the Black and Caspian seas. Let Christian mis- sions be once dominant in Asia Minor, and an open course lies before them to the Russian people. A Door to IV est em Asia Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Bokhara, Turkistan, and Tibet are names with which we have become familiar in our study of geography. With the exception of Tibet, we know these lands to be Mohammedan in re- ligion, wild and unsettled in their civilization, lands from which the world has received time and again shocks of invasion. But as to their real life, manners, customs, thoughts, they might as well be behind an impassable wall. Yet in these days we see them be- ginning to emerge in their contact with Europe and the ^^'est; and we even turn with longing to Siberia and Turkistan as the region from which order shall be brought to the Russian chaos. How can these people be best reached, for Chris- tianity has scarcely been so much as mentioned in their hearing, and Christian missions have had scant opportunity for telling their message of peace and good-will upon earth. Persia stands as the great bar- rier and also the great highway to these interior lands and peoples. Sometimes we think of the thrill of adventure that must have come to the pioneers who a century ago lifted up the banner of the Cross for the first time in heathen lands. One can get something of that thrill THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 179 to-day as he reads the stories of the mission at Meshed, far away in the northeast corner of Persia, where one hundred thousand pilgrims come every year to wor- ship at the sacred Moslem shrine of Imam-Riza. " Meshed Hospital holds the key to Afghanistan and Central Asia," says Samuel Zwemer; and the little band of workers there, with dauntless faith and cour- age, reply, " We have it in our power to make this picture a reality." ^ The Way to Africa A railway from Cairo to Capetown has been for many years one of the dreams of British statesmen. It will undoubtedly become a reality within the life of the present generation, and will connect the life of Cairo and Europe directly with the tribes of Cen- tral Africa. The railway has always been a friend of missions. Just as the Roman roads furnished the Apostle Paul with a means of transit for his mes- sage from one end of the Roman Empire to the other, :o the railway in our modern life has enabled the missionaries of the Cross to carry with speed and efficiency the same message to the heart of heathen lands. Eg>'pt is in a peculiar sense the gateway to Africa. From Eg)'pt flow those influences which are molding to-day the life of the savage tribes, the influences of trade, of commerce, of politics, -and of religion. The ' Meshed Medical Mission Stories. 180 THE NEAR EAST missionaries of Islam, trained in the great schools of Cairo or bearing the wares which they have purchased in Eg}^ptian bazaars, traverse the Sudan and the lake regions of eastern Africa and reach the oases of the great desert. Egypt must also be a stronghold of missions for the winning of the dark continent.^ At the Heart of Islam There is no problem confronting the Christian Church in its work of world evangelization which has been more puzzling or which has offered more difficulties for over a thousand years than the ques- tion of the contact with Mohammedanism. The Church tried to solve this problem in the Middle Ages through the wars of the Crusades. It was an era when men thought that all questions could be settled by the keenness of the sword. Something of that crusading spirit has continued in most of the mis- sionary enterprises that have been sent to Moslem lands, forgetting the spirit of the gospel contained in the Prophet's vision of victory, " Not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of the Master." If, with the city of Damascus as a center, one should describe a circle with a radius of fifteen hun- dred miles, it would include most of the Mohamme- dan races of the world. Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Constantinople have successively been the centers of the Moslem faith, the residence of the Caliph, the ' The Lure of Africa, pages 113-117. THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 181 recognized successor of Mohammed as head of this great rehgion. Mecca, Medina, Kerbela, and Jerusa- lem are the sacred shrines to which throng the faith- ful pilgrims from all parts of the Moslem world. In Cairo is Ipcated the University of El-Azhar, where there are ten thousand students in training as Mo- hammedan teachers and priests. This University is the center of Mohammedan thought and doctrine, and from it go forth the men who mold Moslem opinions, and who are spreading Mohammedanism throughout the countries of Africa and Asia. If the supremacy of Christianity over Mohammedanism can be settled here it will be settled for all the world. The Danger Zone The Near East has been called the " Danger Zone of Europe." Its location has made it the fruitful source of jealousies among European powers; but it is not alone as a political menace that the Near East has earned this name. From this region time and again there have spread throughout the world diseases that have decimated civilized nations. Chol- era, plague, typhus fever, and smallpox have their lair in the cities and villages and have stalked forth claiming many victims throughout Western lands. In a typical city or village of the Near East all garbage and refuse of every description is dumped from the houses and yards into the public street. Such sewers and drains as exist are either open or 182 THE NEAR EAST covered with ill-matched flagstones. Often these drains become blocked, and the sewerage spreads over the streets and dooryards of the homes. Ever}' se- cluded corner or alleyway is a menace to public health and morals. Occasionally carts go through the city and collect the refuse, carrying it to the suburbs, where it is piled up near the gardens to be used as fertilizer. These piles are permitted to steam and rot for a period of two years and are then spread out on the gardens where the vegetables are raised and from which they are brought, often without washing, for sale in the public market. Flies breed and swarm in these rubbish heaps and feed upon the filth in the streets. Here they find the refuse from homes where disease has prevailed and they become ready messen- gers to spread germs far and wide. There is no system of covering meat, fruits, and vegetables displayed in the markets. There is no screening of doors and windows. Street venders have their stands by the roadside, where dust and flies cover the article offered for sale. Children with terrible ophthalmic cases are every- where on the streets. Flies gather upon their sore eyes and then speed away to visit some one not yet affected. Smallpox is considered by many one of the diseases which it is expected all children must have, and before the disease is healed the victims will again mingle with their fellows. Spasmodic efforts have, at times, been made to establish some form of quarantine for pilgrims re- THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 183 turning from the Holy Shrine, but no quarantine pre- vents the bringing of bottles of Holy Water from the wells in these sacred places. Time and again cholera epidemics have been directly traced to water brought in this way by returning pilgrims. A pilgrim from Mecca, in his excess of religious zeal, brings from the sacred well of Zem-Zem a large bottle of Holy Water and, wishing to do a favor to his townsmen by sanctifying their water supply, he empties the whole of his sacred water into the well supplying his own village. Cholera follows and spreads throughout the region. Preventive medicine has largely expended itself in whitewashing garden walls to a height of two or three feet and in sprinkling unslacked lime at the doors of public buildings or near private gateways. Commissions of experienced physicians have, from time to time, been summoned and called upon for recommendations as to improvement in hygienic con- ditions, but, as with most Eastern improvements, they have never proceeded further than the plans on paper. Every year, as we have noted, thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world, from Persia, Afghanis- tan, and Turkistan, from Russia, western Europe, Africa, and America, visit one or more of the holy places in Palestine or Arabia. Going and coming, these pilgrims pass through parts of Eg>^pt and of Syria and mingle one with another on steamboats, in trains, in caravansaries. For the great mass of pilgrims there are no sanitary accommodations, no 184 THE NEAR EAST opportunities for bathing, and there is usually no change of garments throughout the whole pilgrimage. When these many thousands return to their homes, is it surprising that the Near East should become the "Danger Zone of the World?" Need for Sanitary Education In view of these conditions, and the menace whicH these lands are to the health of the world, there is clearly an immediate demand for a wide campaign of sanitary education. It will not be sufficient to establish hospitals for healing diseases, but greater emphasis must be placed on the education of the com- mon people in the doctrine of the clean house, the clean yard, the clean street, and death to the fly. There must be the equipping of district nurses and the carrying of this sanitary education into the very homes. This necessitates better equipment for med- ical schools, nurses' training schools, and research laboratories. And who is best fitted to carry on this education of the common people, foreigners or well- trained native nurses and doctors? Where and how shall these be trained? The war has brought many things to the Near East, not least of which is the opportunity for healthy, clean living. But how shall the customs of centuries be changed to the belief that " cleanliness is next to godliness "? Just here it would be profitable to study the reports of the American Red Cross Commission THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 185 to Palestine and to note the splendid things accom- plished along this line in the unspeakably dirty vil- lages of that district and in the city of Jerusalem itself. Working at the direct invitation of the British military authorities, this Commission followed right in behind the advance of General Allenby's army and cleaned up as they went. The problem now is to so educate the people to the necessity for sanitary conditions that they will be anxious to remain clean. Here is opportunity for permanent missionary work. Relief Work and Reconstruction Othman laid the foundations of the Ottoman Em- pire in Western Asia Minor. His successor, Orchan, made that power sure by organizing his corps of " The Janizaries." He took a thousand young boys from among the Christian captives every year, in- structed them in the Moslem faith, and trained them to the life of soldiers. They were allowed to have no association with their families and were taught to look to the Sultan as their father and patron. They became his body-guard and the most efficient fighting machine of that age. They made Turkish power pos- sible throughout the great extent of the empire. They dethroned Sultans and set them up, but they were always loyal to the House of Othman. They were feared throughout all Europe. It is estimated that in the countries of the Near 186 THE NEAR EAST East the war has left at least 400,000 children or- phans, who must be cared for during the next decade. What might this not mean, were the Christian people of America to have the guidance, under proper in- fluences, of this large number of future men and women of the Near East! Think of nearly half a million boys and girls trained to self-reliance and self- control under the direction of those who have regard, not only for making them efficient craftsmen, farmers, merchants, and professional men, but who seek also to instill the principles of Christian ethics, of Chris- tian stewardship, and of humble Christian service as loyal to the true cause of Christ as were the Jani- zaries to the House of Othman. Every student of this book should read the twenty- fourth chapter of Ambassador Morgenthau's Story that he may have a correct picture of the deporta- tions, massacres, and famine that prevailed through- out the Turkish Empire during the days of the war. Not only within Turkey itself, but across the borders into the Russian Caucasus and especially into western Persia the same horrors spread. Thousands of refu- guees escaped across the boundary lines, but this availed them little, for there was no respect paid to geographical lines, the same scenes of terror and distress were enacted wherever they went. Every one should hear the thrilling story of 15,000 defenseless Armenians and Syrians protected for months in the American Mission compound of Urumia by the Stars and Stripes flying over the gateway, and of the five THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 187 intrepid American missionaries who defied the mob to pull down that flag. All through the period of the war practically the whole time of the mission force on the field was taken up with the distribution of the funds collected by the American Committee for Relief in the Near East and the English Palestine Relief Fund. What superb work these committees have done in raising money, and later in sending workers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and rescue the homeless! Two million dollars a month America alone has been putting into the work of this committee. In addition to this, the Red Cross, ever present where humanity cries for help, responded to the call of General Allenby and entered Palestine and Syria, where they cared for the refugees rescued by the British forces and helped put in order the disorganized land through which they moved. No one can measure the generations of hatred and prejudice which have been stored up by the injustice and cruelties of the present war. What a relief it is, therefore, to come in contact with the gratitude and love which iias been promoted by this great work of relief. From all the peoples of the Near East, Chris- tian, Mohammedan, Jew, Persian, Armenian, Turk, and Syrian, there is one common voice of gratitude to America for the abundant relief which she has poured out for these stricken people. They had come to know something of America and Americans through the influence of the schools and hospitals 188 THE NEAR EAST and mission work, but they had never before realized that there could be such a disinterested, unprejudiced outpouring of brotherly aid. The work of this Re- lief Committee has not only saved the lives of mil- lions of human beings, but it has also saved their faith in men. It is impossible to measure the influence of this work as a molding power for the future. The great problem of the Near East is not that of natural resources, but of man power. Hence the mere sav- ing of as many lives as possible is a direct contribution to the great human problem, but more than that, the example of unselfish service, the spirit of gratitude, and the maintenance of hope and faith have contributed immeasurably to the molding of the future of these lands. Whatever may come of political intrigue, of racial jealousies, and of national separations, one thing is sure to abide and that is the influence of this fellowship of suffering and the fellowship of relief. The Challenge of To-day " Hear ye now what the Lord saith. Arise, con- tend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice," says the Prophet of Judah as he challenges the people of his day to plead their cause and to learn what God requires of men. The same challenge is issued to the men of the world to-day. First of all to Christian statesmanship in the realm of international questions, to so dispose THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 189 of the problems of these Eastern lands that they shall cease to be a menace to the world. And such solution can be obtained only when they forsake the thought of political bargains, territorial accessions, and provin- cial greed. To political statesmanship the challenge is, in the words of the Prophet Amos, " Let justice roll down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream." The second challenge to Christian statesmanship is that of the statesmen of the Church. Where else in all the world can be found such a center in which to set the lamp upon the lampstand ? This is the very region which God himself chose from which to make his complete revelation to men. For one hun- dred years foundations have been laid in schools, col- leges, hospitals, literature, and preaching. These past four years the Relief Committee have laid the great corner-stone inscribed, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto me." The challenge now comes to build upon this foundation such an edifice as shall give forth its light to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west. A challenge also goes forth to the people of these lands. Now is their opportunity to come into their own; to cease living in the past with bowed heads and cringing mien; to rise and stand upon their feet and show themselves worthy of the new day which is dawn- ing for them. Darkness and oppression have been upon them for centuries. Racial hatred and religious rivalries have held them back for a thousand years. This new day challenges them to cast aside the incubus 190 THE NEAR EAST of divisions and to lay hold with one united effort, upon the opportunity that this day has brought to them commercially, morally, and religiously. Tradition says that it was a monk from Syria who, leaping down into the arena of Rome, raised aloft the Cross of Christ and in His Name forbade the continuance of the gladiatorial combats. He lost his life, but he saved the people. In this new day shall not these Eastern people hold aloft, as in the first centuries, the sign of universal peace and prosperity? And the final challenge is to American Christianity. The forces of other nations are wearied and prostrate from the great war. America stands as a thoroughly trained, unwearied athlete ready for the great contest. In these Eastern lands America has a great store of gratitude as a tremendous asset for success. Nineteen hundred years ago on the plains of Troy, the Jewish apostle of Christ beheld a man saying, " Come over to Macedonia and help us," and the next ship saw him and his comrades on his way to the West. To-day there is the vision of the man say- ing, " Come over to the East and help us." This is the challenge to American Christianity. It comes to us as to the people of no other land, and it comes to-day. The lands of the Levant, the first lands of history. the lands we have all learned to love in legend, in story, and religion, and the people of these lands send out their call for help, the Challenge of To-day. THE WORLD'S CROSSROADS 191 What of To-morroiv? To the people of the Near East the statesmen of Europe and America have held out the hope that a new day is dawning. They have been assured that there will be an opportunity to have their age-long passion for freedom satisfied. They have been prom- ised help, not exploitation. The larger nations, under the influences that have burned brightly in war time, have pledged the assistance of older brothers. Are these promises and pledges to be redeemed in good faith? The day is at hand, the question presses now. There is the question of " mandatory." This is a new term used to signify a steward or trustee of the nations. Who shall those mandatories be ? Shall they be simply assigned by the powers of Europe or shall the peoples themselves have some word as to who is most desired? Shall a nation when asked, accept or decline? And what of America in the Near East? Shall she help as she has already helped in Cuba and the Philippines, or shall she plead, " America first and only " ? " Who knoweth but thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? " And what of the pressure of the missionary de- mand? It is only a day from daylight to dawn, and "to-morrow" is almost here. What if the Church should delay and miss the opportunity! Commercial expansion, industrial readjustment, social transforma- tion, educational advancement, political reorganiza- 192 THE NEAR EAST tion — all these are sure to come speedily. What shall the spiritual life be, cold indifference, scoffing atheism, or a warm, glowing, enthusiastic fellowship with Jesus Christ? Any one of these is possible. " And if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place." VIII SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? i CHAPTER EIGHT SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? By James L. Barton IT ROM whatever standpoint one approaches the Near East, the interest and emotions aroused are m.ore intense and fundamental than those stirred by any other groups of countries. Why this is so the preceding seven chapters abundantly reveal. Here are the " Holy Lands " of nearly one half the world's population. No other part of the world calls for more thorough study of the adjustments that are needed in the years following the war. The common sentiment of hu- manity demands for these stricken nations a new or- der of justice and righteousness. Everywhere men are following with keen interest and deep feeling such reports of the rapid and confusing shifts in the Near Eastern political situation as are allowed to appear. Through the uncertainty and misunderstanding that have surrounded these lands since the cessation of hos- tilities in 1918 the world now looks anxiously for the just settlement which it trusts that the League of 195 196 THE NEAR EAST Nations will be able to bring to the affairs of these distracted peoples. Public opinion in all countries should realize the complex and difficult nature of the task. Throughout the Near East the tides of ancient hatreds and modern rivalries dash high and hard, as they have done for centuries, against uncertain bound- ary lines. It is here that religion has played a con- spicuous part in building high racial barriers and in drawing around multiplied nationalities impassable partition walls. The war and its aftermath have tended, not to the amelioration of these conflicting forces and conditions, but rather to their intensifica- tion. The Near East is not a country, but an area of widely extending territory connecting Persia with Europe, forming a bridge between the Mediterranean and the Black seas, providing a foundation for a rail- road connecting the Bosphorus with the Gulf of Arabia, and holding a corner of Russia south of the Balkans still uncontrolled by Bolshevism. Mesopotamia has nothing in common with Trans- caucasia except unrest; while Syria lies in a world entirely by itself as far as Armenia and Anatolia are concerned. Transcancasiis In the Transcaucasus, extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian, and from the Caucasus Moun- SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED?. 197 tains to Persia and Turkey, there are three outstand- ing- races : the Georgians, the Tartars, or Azerbaijans, and the Armenians. Soon after the Armistice, each one of these proclaimed a republic. The Georgian re- public is the only one of the three which reaches to the Black Sea, and the Azerbaijan republic the only one touching upon the Caspian Sea, The republic of Armenia is in a geographical and political pocket, shut in by the Georgians on the north, the Tartars on the east, and upon the south and west by the Kurds and the Turks. The capital of the Georgian republic is Tiflis, of the Azerbaijan republic, Baku, and of Armenia, Erivan. Not one of these new republics possesses a popula- tion of more than three million souls. They all fear the early return of Russia, realizing well that they will not be able to resist the powerful military force now operating in southern Russia and approaching nearer and nearer to the Caucasus. Because of this fear pri- marily, they clamor for recognition and help to strengthen and provide for the defense of their respec- tive governments. Most unfortunately these new republics in the Caucasus are not friendly one with the other. The Georgians, although nominally a Christian race, are more inclined to train with the Tartars than with the Armenians, while the latter fraternize with neither. Add to these conditions the possible early return of the Russians under the red flag, and also the fact that national boundary lines are largely imaginary, and 198 THE NEAR EAST -\ve have a fair picture of the poHtical and racial questions of the Caucasus. Turkey Upon the Turkish side of the line matters are no less confused and confusing. Here there are five conflicting and rival national elements : the Turks, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Syrians, and the Arabs, not to mention the Kurds. We can set aside the new Arab kingdom under King Hussein as not a part of our present discussion. There is just now a marked harmony between the Syrians and the Arabs, who together are demanding an inde- pendent Syria in which the Arabic language is spoken and which embraces both Christian Syrians and Mos- lem Arabs. The eastern and southern boundary of this pro- posed republic of Syria, or federation of Arab states, as some have suggested, is somewhat hazy. It would probably extend eastward to the Persian border and to that part of Mesopotamia already held by Great Britain, and southward to include that part of Arabia not already claimed by the kingdom of the Hedjas and the British. Whether or not Palestine will be a part of this proposed new government is not yet evident. North of Syria, extending to the Black Sea and bordering at the northeast upon the new republic of Armenia-in-Russia, is Armenia-in-Turkey, whose hope and prayer has been and still is that the entire area including Russian Armenia and the lesser .\r- SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 199 menia or Cilicia might be erected into a united and independent Armenian state, with ports uix»n both the Black and the Mediterranean seas. The western boundary of this proposed new Armenia is necessarily undefined and, if decided at all, must be settled either upon the basis of population or by some arbitrary decision. Upon the west of this indefinite Armenia, extend- ing to the T^gean Sea at Smyrna and to the environs of Constantinople yet to be defined, is Anatolia, in which the major part of the population is Turkish. This area has been discussed at length around the peace table in Paris and in the press, as the possible legatee of the Ottoman Empire. Within this same territory there are many Armenians and Greeks who have Uved there for centuries and who are as much citizens of the country as are the Turks. Constantinople has been much in the public eye when the question of mandatories has been under discussion. The name " Constantinople " in this case is not intended to mean simply the city upon the Bos- phorus, but includes all that will remain of Turkey in Europe after the final adjustments with the Balkan States have been completed, together with the southern shores of the Bosphonis, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. This city, with the environs as thus outlined, is under consideration to be set apart as an international area directly under the League of Nations and so governed quite distinctly from that of any of the other areas above mentioned. 200 THE NEAR EAST The Turks, however, with considerable support from some Europeans are strongly resisting the trans- ference of their capital to the interior. This gives us six distinct and separate countries or governments or areas in the former Turkish Em- pire, each desiring to be erected into an independent state under a mandatory. To recapitulate, these are : The repubhcs of Georgia, of Azerbaijan, of Armenia (to include both Russian and Turkish Armenia), Syria or the federated Arab states, Anatolia, and Con- stantinople. It is evident to all who have studied the situation that none of these countries, if recognized as inde- pendent governments, now possesses the capacity for self-government. Apart from Turkey, none of these has had any experience in governmental affairs, and Turkey has proved her incapacity by her miserable failures. All these aspiring new nations confess their inability for unaided self -administration and ask for help from without. It left to themselves, disorder and revolution will follow disorder and revo- lution. The mutual rivalries and jealousies and an- cient feuds which exist throughout the entire country covered by these conflicting nationalities would lead almost immediately, if left unprotected and unguided, to internal disorder and international strife in the most aggravated forms, repeating the horrors of racial, feudal, and religious hatreds in the form of extensive brigandage and wide-sweeping mas- sacres. SHALL THE LAND BE SEALED? 201 Egypt Since the protectorate of Egypt has been estab- lished, the allied governments have given assent to President Wilson's principles of self-determination. This has caused a renewal of nationalistic aspirations in Egypt, which have taken form in violent uprisings against all foreign control. The cry of " Egypt for the Egyptians " has long been the key-note of the na- tionalistic parties, and during the past year it has taken definite form in a demand for the absolute withdrawal of England from Egypt, and also for the expulsion of all foreigners from the country. At first glance this movement might receive a sym- pathetic response from all liberty-loving people, but what is true freedom? If Egypt were handed over to this party, would it represent as much national free- dom as they enjoy under the dominion of the British Colonial system? Is a country which is ruled by a bureaucracy or an autocracy a free country? Unfor- tunately, early in the development of this national spirit its leaders coupled it with similar movements in Turkey and Persia, and with the Pan-Islam move- ment. Now one sixteenth of the population of Egypt are Christian Copts, who are direct descendants from the ancient Egy^ptians. They would be wholly left out in a national movement which was strictly Mo- hammedan. The nationalistic parties have not yet learned to distinguish between a fanatical religious movement 202 THE NEAR EAST and a patriotic movement which includes all classes. The movement in Persia resulted in anarchy. In Turkey it brought about not only a worse govern- jiient than that which prevailed in the days of Abdul Hamid, but it has resulted in the final destruction -of the Empire. The effects of trusting an impor- tant waterway like the Dardanelles to such a gov- ernment as that of the Turks have been seen. Is it safe now to pass over another important waterway, the Suez Canal, to a party in Egypt which has not yet demonstrated its freedom from religious bias and racial fanaticism ? ^ Mandatories Conscious of these conditions and needs, the Peace ''Conference made provision for establishing and main- taining order in all parts of the Turkish Empire. Article 22 of the Covenant of the League reads in part as follows : " To those colonies and territories which as a con- sequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the states which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoj)4es not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this trust shall be •embodied in this Covenant. The best method of giv- '^ Tlu New Map of Europe, page 397. SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 203 ing practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such people shall be intrusted to advanced na- tions, who, by reason of their resources, their ex- perience, or their geographical position, can best un- dertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as mandatories on l)ehalf of the League.. . . . Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal con- sideration in the selection of the mandatory." Who should accept these Mandatoriesf This leads to the practical question of who shall take the mandatory of these former dependencies upon the Turkish Empire and upon Russia. The most obvious and natural reply is that England should assume this responsibility. England has been the most successful nation in organizing, training, and controlling native alien populations. Her experience extends over a long period of time and embraces a great variety of Asiatic and African peoples. As many of the peoples within the territory outlined above are Mohammedans, and as England already rules over more than ninety millions of people of 204 THE NEAR EAST this religion, it is natural to assume that England's experience eminently equips her for this task. Almost by common consent the civilized world has mentally selected England for this responsibility. On the other hand, England takes the position that, ■as she has lost enormously in her man power and financial strength through the war, she is unable to add this no small task to what she is already bearing. She points to the conditions in Egypt and India which •compel her to give much attention to readjustment and reorganization there, preventing her withdrawing her resources from these two great countries to which she is irrevocably committed. She therefore has come to the conclusion that she has neither the men nor the money to set up for these dependent peoples in Turkey the government they deserve, — in fact, that which they must have, if the Near East is to remain in order. We cannot escape the fact that some of the people dwelling in the above outlined areas have fear that if England should come in and assume the responsi- bility of the mandatory, it might ultimately result in permanent control if not in annexation. Many of the leaders have asked : " Where has England ever entered a country with her military forces and later withdrawn?" Egypt and India and other countries have been cited as examples of places into which England has sent troops to maintain order, but where she remains to-day as ruler. As these would-be independent states desire ultimate SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 205 and absolute independence and self-government, they hesitate to express approval of a plan which might result otherwise. They also realize that for the future defense of Persia, India, and Egypt it might seem to Great Britain necessary, in the not distant future, to take permanent possession of the territories which, in a large measure, furnish the military key to the politi- cal situation. The Russian representatives in Paris declared that they would never yield Russian Armenia to either England or France, and therefore, if England should assume the mandatory of Armenia, it could be but over that part of Armenia lying within the boundary of the old Turkish Empire. There would also be difficulties with Cilicia or Lesser Armenia, since that territory is desired by France and the French have officially announced that they would never recognize England as the mandatory over that part of Armenia; hence if England should assume the mandatory of Armenia it could be but the middle section lying in Turkey, Russian Armenia and Cilicia being separated from it. The Russians took the same attitude toward France as a mandatory over Russian Armenia. The Armenians would gladly accept England as the man- datory power under whose directions they were to form their new government if it were possible to hold Armenia together under England, but in view of the facts as above stated, they have turned else- where. The Turks would accept England as second choice and so would the Syrians, according to the re- 206 THE NEAR EAST port of the Paris Commission to Syria and Turkey led by President King and Charles R. Crane. The European powers are loath to put Constanti- nople into the hands of a first-class European nation. This is a continuation of the old question of who shall rule the Mediterranean, and the theory is that the first-class power holding Constantinople will have a fair chance of becoming the master of the Medi- terranean, with control of the direct route to India. This rules out both England and France. The King Commission learned^ after most painstaking investi- gation, that Syria and Arabia desire England as man- datory only as second choice, but absolutely repudiate the idea of coming under the control of France. The Wishes of the People Reverting to the Covenant of the League of Na- tions, we note that the wishes of the communities to be governed are to have principal consideration in the selection of the mandatory. It is an interesting fact that the countries named above have expressed a strong desire that the United States take the man- datory of each. The Armenians, because of reasons given above and also because, for the last hundred years, they have in large numbers been under the tutelage of American teachers in American schools, have been unanimous in their wishes in this direction. The King Commission reports that at least eighty per cent of the people of Syria and Arabia have regis- SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 207 tered themselves in favor of having their country- come under the mandatory of the United States, men- tioning England as second choice, but, as already stated, rejecting France altogether. In Anatolia the Turks as vi^ell as the non-Moslem populations ask for America as the nation most trusted and, in their judg- ment, the best able to restore order and give a safe and just government. England, France, and other interested nations and peoples would welcome the United States as the mandatory of Constantinople. In the minds of none of these is there suspicion that America, thus entering into the political life of the Near East, would have any temptation to plan for permanence or would develop national or interna- tional territorial ambitions. This is perhaps the only thing upon which all these rival and contending races ever did unite, and in this they seem to be agreed,, that America is their friend, has no desire for an- nexation or permanent control, and no ulterior mo- tive except to serve the people, to secure for them safety, justice, and prosperity, and put them upon the high road to self-government. Their love for and confidence in the United States is almost pathetic. The Opportunity of the United States Why should not the United States accept? America is known and honored by all these countries on account of the work of her missionaries during the last cen- tury. The people of all races have deep admiration 208 THE NEAR EAST for the many American institutions of education and mercy which have been planted in all sections of this country except in the Russian Caucasus. In times of famine and massacre millions of dollars of relief money have been raised in America and distributed by the Americans to the suffering, irrespective of race, color, or religion. Many of the leaders in dif- ferent parts of the country have received their educa- tion and training at the hands of American teachers and in institutions that, in the name of American philanthropy, have imparted modern Western edu- cation. America has the men who are quite capable of ad- ministering the affairs of any one or of all of these proposed new states. Our losses in the. war, compared with the losses of our European allies, were negligible. We have no outstanding colonies making heavy de- mand upon our young manhood, as is the case in Eng- land and France. We would not for a moment ac- knowledge that our men have not the full capacity to supply every need which this new service would de- mand. Not a few of our men have had extended and successful experience in the Philippine Islands, where the demands were quite similar to those which would be put upon them in the Near East. A field of service of this character would provide a worthy and a much desired outlet for the talent and capacity of a large number of able young men. In this connection and to show how closely allied our work in the Philippines was to that now contemplated SHALL THE LAXD BE HEALED? 209 in the Near East, I quote briefly from the instruction of President McKinley to the Philippine Commission given on April 7, 1900 : " The Commission should bear in mind that the government which they are establish- ing is designed, not for our satisfaction or the ex- pression of our theoretical views, but for the happi- ness, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philip- pine Islands, and the measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs, their habits, and even their prejudices to the fullest extent consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable requi- sites of just and effective government. . . . The main body of the law which regulates the rights and obliga- tions of the people should be maintained with as little interference as possible. . . . That no form of re- ligion and no ministers of religion shall be forced upon any community or upon any citizen of the Islands. That, upon the other hand, no ministers of religion shall be interfered with or molested in following their calling, and that the separation between state and church shall be real, entire, and absolute." One needs but to compare this statement with the general tenor and spirit of the Covenant of the League of Nations bearing upon this point and especially with the charter under which mandatories are to be con- ducted, not yet been made public, to see that America twenty years ago discovered the true spirit of manda- tories and has had one in actual and successful opera- tion in the Philippines for two decades. These twenty years are a chapter most creditable in our national his- 210 THE NEAR EAST tory. After having performed this service so success- fully and vi-ithout precedent, none can doubt the ca- pacity of America to repeat the experiment in the Near East with equal success. America has the wealth and resources. We need not dwell upon this point. The task would require men for civil and gendarmerie service. General Har- bord estimates that if America should take the manda- tory of the entire country, there would be required at the outset two divisions of American troops, but he immediately adds that fifty per cent of these could be returned within two years. It would require money to open lines of communication, develop the mineral resources of the country, to put upon a modern basis the agricultural operations, to build railroads, and establish an educational system. Again referring to General Harbord, we find that he estimates that prob- ably $800,000,000 would be required for this purpose, but at the same time he adds that this would be paid back with interest easily within twenty years. America is fair in religion. That was the universal testimony by people of all religions throughout the Near East. Many of them have carefully watched the attitude of the missionaries, and the Mohammedans say freely and emphatically that the American mission- aries have never brought compulsion to bear in order to lead a student or any one else to change his religion. It is known among all people there that all religions have equal rights in the United States and that a mosque is as much protected by the laws of America SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 211 as is a church. The Mohammedans therefore do not fear the incoming of an American mandatory, because they know that Mohammedanism would not be coerced under any form of government that America might give them. America belifeves in education. The entire country of the Near East is woefully destitute of modem edu- cational facilities. High Mohammedan officials have repeatedly affirmed that, had the people of that coun- try been thoroughly educated according to modern methods, there would never have been any Armenian atrocities. This reveals the desire on the part of the official Mohammedans for a thorough system of educa- tion such as America is able to give. A general school system reaching all classes and all nationalities and all communities would be abundantly welcomed. There is no country in the world better able to give this than our own, with its system of education which has done so much for us as a nation and which can do as much for these backward races, as is illustrated by our results in the Philippines. America would not be tempted to overstay. She has the opportunity to set an unprecedented example before the world. American experience in the Philippines and in Cuba has commanded wide atten- tion because of its unselfish, even benevolent spirit in dealing with these island people. The discussions in the Peace Conference have painfully revealed the at- titude of some of the European nations with reference to conquered territory. The high ideals early promul- 212 THE NEAR EAST gated have seemed to fade away as national ambition for new territory has gained the ascendency. England retains Mesopotamia, which she had conquered at great cost, hardly suggesting that that, too, might be put upon the peace table for final adjudication, to- gether with other conquered parts of the Turkish Empire. France has come forward with almost a de- mand that she have Syria and Cilicia as hers by right; and so the spirit of cupidity and greed comes to the front, and even up to this hour seems to increase rather than to diminish. It is the old spirit which has been dominant during the centuries and which, unless some- thing is done now to check it. may become the only basis for the control of the territories under considera- tion. Just at this juncture there is the possibility that America, great, rich, and powerful, may come in, not only with the approval of many of the European na- tions and at the earnest desire and solicitation of others, but at the eager desire of the people most affected. She would in that case assume the responsi- bility of organizing a government and developing the resources of these countries in a way that would be- come for all time an outstanding example to the entire world. Here is an opportunity for the United States to perform a piece of disinterested Christian inter- nationalism which would go down in history as an example of what one great nation can do for weak and defenseless peoples in putting them on the high SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 213 road to prosperity and self-government. It is an op- portunity which the nation should covet, nut avoid. The question is, will the people of America realize the opportunity and accept the responsibility? If America does not, so far as we can see not a little of the sacrifice and losses of the late great war will be of no avail. The people of the Near East in the terri- tory above outlined will not be put on the way to pros- perity and self-government, but will become the prey of national and international intrigue, rivalry, and jealousy and will continue to be a source of strife and conflict. Constantinople the Capital of the League The Peace Conference realized the necessity of the League of Nations having a permanent capital. It is of primary importance that that capital should be suited to the work the League is destined to perform and the influence it inevitably must bear on the entire world. Article 7 of the Covenant of the League of Nations says: " The seat of the League is established at Geneva," but adds that " the Council may at any time decide that the seat of the League shall be estab- lished elsewhere." The place selected for the perma- nent capital of the League should be central, strategical, easy of access, capable of all necessary development, and of a solubrious and inspiring climate. Constantinople meets all of these requirements and more. The city and the adjacent area are filled with classical and historical interest. In beauty of location 214 THE NEAR EAST it is unsurpassed, lying at the juncture of the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus, and the Sea of Marmora, and rising directly from the water upon a marvelous series of picturesque hills. The climate can hardly be ex- celled by any city in Europe or Asia. Its close proxim- ity to water tempers its summer heat, while its latitude and location upon open water protect it from extreme cold in the winter. Its port is always ice free. The city is intercontinental, lying at the point where Europe and Asia meet, and it is more generally accessible from all parts of the world than any other city. It lies at the crossroads of the continents, over which the commerce of the nations passes, and it soon will have every facility of rail approach both from the entire continent of Europe as well as from India, Persia, and the East. Its location is eminently fitting also because its protected waters could float the navies of the world. It is situated in the midst of the political and national storm center of Europe and Asia. On one side are the Balkans, Poland, Jugo-Slavakia, and Czecho- slovakia; on the east are all the discordant elements in Transcaucasia and the old Turkish Empire. These are the very areas which will require for years, pos- sibly for generations, the direct attention of the League. There would be enormous advantage in hav- ing the capital city of the League of Nations where it could exercise commanding influence over the forces of disorder and unrest which still threaten to disturb the present equilibrium. SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 215 If Constantinople should be thus taken as the capital, it would solve forever the question of the Turk-in- Europe and the future occupation of Constantinople, as well as the free waterways from the Black Sea to the ^gean. This area would then become distinctly and emphatically international under the control of the League. The " Constantinople question," which has agitated Europe for so many decades, would be for- ever settled. The League of Nations would thus be amenable to and responsible to no government but its own, and wholly free from any local or national restraints. These are conditions which cannot be assured if the League is located elsewhere, and yet they are condi- tions which are essential to its most successful opera- tion. Effect of Mandatory on Work of Missions Hitherto, throughout the entire country concerned, except Russia, missionary work has been carried on with a considerable degree of opposition from the Turkish Government, but also with a large degree of Hberty. Missionaries do not anywhere advocate politi- cal changes in order to make this work easier. But in the name of justice and humanity they ask for such political readjustments as shall bring safety to life and property, and liberty of belief and worship, to all classes in the country. What would be the efifect of establishing an Ameri- can mandatorv over the four areas outlined above; 216 THE NEAR EAST namely, Constantinople, Anatolia, Armenia, ^and Syria ? 1. It would remove the awful incubus of fear which for centuries has rested like a pall upon all classes of the population, 2. Industrially and commercially the country would be made over. Chronic stag'nation now marks the state of everything which would promote these interests in any part of the country. 3. Adequate protection and the encouragement of new industrial and commercial enterprises would, from the beginning, give to the entire countr}% in the place of widespread fear and general poverty, a spirit of content and of hopeful anticipation. Capital would flow in, and the inhabitants of every class and race would be buoyed up by a new hope and a sense of security. 4. Religious liberty would be guaranteed. Hith- erto the Turkish Government has given a fair degree of religious liberty — so far as liberty to worship is concerned — to the Christian nations in the Empire. But there has been no liberty for a j\Ioslem to change his religion. While, under pressure from Europe, the death penalty has not been openly visited upon converted Moslems for more than a half century, still it is understood that to kill a Mohammedan who has become a Christian is not a crime. A decree to this effect was issued during the closing months of 19 19. This made it impossible to present openly to Moslems in Turkey the gospel of Christ or to plan openly for SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 217 Christian work among them. Thus the Kurds, the Tartars, the Turks, and the Arabs have hardly been in the field of direct Christian approach. 5. Education would become general. Illiteracy has been widespread, in spite of all that missionaries have done in establishing schools. The Kurds, the Tartars, and the Arabs have been hardly touched by any modern educational movements, and the Turks have been but little in advance of them. At the present time there is a widespread desire among the Turks and Arabs for better modern education. This would strike at the very source of the superstitions of all the Moslem populations and prepare the way for the recep- tion of religious truth. The scientific methods taught in the schools would put religious thinking upon a safer foundation. 6. A common-school system recognizing the domi- nance of no race or creed, and a system of govern- ment that treated all nationalities alike, would in itself be a mighty transforming social agency. This has been already done, to a limited degree, in the mis- sionary schools. It would necessarily develop a new social consciousness of enormous benefit in lifting the entire social fabric of the Near East. 7. New resources in the country would make prob- able the early self-support of missionary institutions. Before the war the Armenians, in spite of the low in- dustrial state of the countrv, had shown a readiness and capacity to support, to a most commendable de- gree, religious and educational enterprises among them. 218 THE NEAR EAST There is no reason why, with national good order and successful development of the local industries and foreign comerce, all the educational, medical, and liter- ary operations should not become speedily self-sup- porting; all except the pioneer enterprise in evangel- istic work. Missionary work would not be primarily financial, but rather an endeavor to build up among the people of all races and religions modern institutions of piety, charity, and education, speedily to become self-sup- porting, self-governing, and self-propagating. The predominance of the missionaries would soon yield to the supremacy of educated natives, who, moved by the true Christian spirit, would be ready to devote them- selves to the welfare of their people. The aim of the missionaries would thus become more and more to supervise the training of the men and women who would become the true reformers of the land. 8. Large numbers of Armenian, Syrian, and Greek students from Turkey have come to the United States to complete their studies. Some returned as teachers and workers, but many were kept from going back from fear of Turkish misrule. Under a democratic regime, the numbers coming to this country for special studies in academic, religious, social, industrial, and commercial subjects would necessarily be increased, while the proportion of those returning would be greatly multiplied. Through this interchange and commingling of the brightest and most enterprising men and women of the Near East with the West, we SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 219 should have reason to anticipate a rapid development of native religious, moral, social, and intellectual re- sources for the normal and balanced development of the country. In the Caucasus, owing to the prohibitions hitherto put by the Russian Government upon all missionary operations, beginnings would be more primitive, but even there the general trend of development among the more primitive Georgians and Tartars would be along similar lines. Missions have nothing to fear from the new development in Turkey, even though Syria and Cilicia are put under a French mandatory. While the French are inclined to fear American mis- sionaries and educators as political agents, they can undoubtedly be made to understand the unsoundness of the charge. Whatever takes place, the Near East will never again become what it was before 19 14. The crust of its seclusion has been broken through, and races dwelling there are beginning to think in new terms of liberty and independence. We of the West have a responsibility to see that the liberty to which they aspire be the liberty of righteousness, and their inde- pendence that of right thinking and right being. America already holds the moral and intellectual man- datory of the Near East, and we should not shrink from assuming the political mandatory as well. 220 THE NEAR EAST The Church's Respoiisibility Whether the United States shall exercise the man- date, or England, or France, or the Allies acting to- gether, the chief elements of the case remain. There are 50,000,000 people in the Near East. They are destined to remain there under whatever rule. Mil- lions are miserably poor and sick. Most of them are ignorant. They are harboring fears and hatreds due to age-long persecutions and violence. Their indus- trial and agricultural inadequacy show lack both of equipment and of knowledge. To them the conditions spell immediate and critical need. To us more favored Christians the conditions spell opportunity and obliga- tion. Their need makes imperative challenge because all seclusion of even remoter parts of the Near East has been permanently broken in, the Republics, of Georgia and Azerbaijan will now welcome Christian missions, and Prince Feisal begs that we start schools in Mecca, even Mecca. The Turks, seeing the won- derful show of humanity by the American Red Cross and the Near East Relief, have finally said in explana- tion, " It must be their religion." They too will gen- erally be hospitable to mission schools. Here, then, is a complex of races and peoples quite spent and receptive, in a place geographically of strategic importance, in a region of varied produc- tivity, and of native gifts justifying generous hopes. The case calls for the Church's immediate and gener- ous response. Time is an element in a fair answer. SHALL THE LAND BE HEALED? 221 The time we take and the good we may do are in inverse ratio. As we lessen the time till our going, we greaten the measure of our service. Boards now working in the Near East have made their survey and see the need of 475 new missionaries in addition to the 394 already there. The Church's first generosity in money — and money is more easily raised — must be matched by the gift of strong young lives, without which the money is inert and profitless. Redemption of Bible lands awaits the help of lands that have the Bible, Religious sentiment, humanity, and missionary strategy, all will be served by the Church's prompt and generous answ'er to the call of the Near East. The Near East was never so near. January, 1920. BIBLIOGRAPHY General Egan, Eleanor Franklin, War in the Cradle of the World, Meso- potamia. 1918. Harper & Brothers, New York. Gibbons, H. A., The Reconstruction of Poland and the Near East; Problefns of Peace. 1917. Century Co., New York. Levine, I. D., The Resurrected Nations. 1919. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. Mathews, Basil, The Riddle of Nearer Asia. 1918. George H. Doran Co., New York. Moore, B. B., From Moscow to the Persian Gulf. 1915. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Patton, Cornelius H., The Lure of Africa. 1917. Interchurch Press. New York. Ramsey, W. M., The Intermixture of Races in Asia Minor. 1917. Milford. Rihbany, A. M., America Save the Near East. 1918. Beacon Press, Boston. Roosevelt, Kermit, War in the Garden of Eden. 1919. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. Whitman, S., Turkish Memories. 1914. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Zwemer, Samuel M., Islam: A Challenge to Faith, igo/. Stu- dent Volunteer Movement, New York. Zwemer, Samuel M., and Brown, Arthur J., The Nearer and Farther East. 1908. Macmillan Co., New York. Political Benson, E. F., Crescent and Iron Cross. 1918. George H. Doran Co., New York. Eversley, Lord. The Turkish Empire: Its Grozt'th and Decay. 1917. Dodd, Mead & Co.. New York. Gibbons, H. A., The New Map of Asia. 1919. Century Co., New York. Hall, William H., Reconstruction in Turkey. 1918. Series of reports compiled for the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 223 Jastrow, M., The War and the Bagdad Railway. 1918. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa Morgenthau, Henry, Ambassador Morgentliau's Story. 1918. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y. Savic, V. R., South-eastern Europe: the Main Problem of the Present World-Struggle. 1918. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Sidebotham, Herbert, England and Palestine. 191 7. Constable, London. Woods. H. C, The Cradle of the War, the Near East and Pan- Germanism. 1918. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Countries ARABIA Doughty, Charles M., Wanderings in Arabia. 1908. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Hurgronje, C. S., The Revolt in Arabia. 1917. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. ARMENIA Asian, Kevork. Armenia and the Armenians. 1919- Macmillan Co , New York. Gabrielian, M. C, Armenia, a Martyr Nation. 1918. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Ormanian, M., The Church of Armenia. 1912. Mowbray, London. Papazian, B. S., The Tragedy of Armenia. 1918. Pilgrim Press, Boston. ASIA MINOR Childs, W. J., Across Asia Minor on Foot. 1917. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. Curtis, William E.. Around the Black Sea. 1917- George H. Doran Co., New York. Hawley, Walter A.. Asia Minor. 1918. John Lane Co., New York. CONSTANTINOPLE Dwight, Henry O., Constantinople, Old and New. 1915- Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Stamboul Nights. 1916. Doubleday, Page & Co, Garden City, N. Y. 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY Pears, Sir Edwin, Forty Years in Constantinople. 1916. Washburn, George., Fifty Years in Constantinople. 1910, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. EGYPT Cromer, Lord, Modern Egypt. 1916. Macmillan Co., New York. Lane-Poole, Stanley, Story of Cairo. E. P. Dutton Co., New- York. Watson, C. R., In the Valley of the Nile. 1908. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. KURDISTAN Wigram, W. A., and Wigram, E. T. A., The Cradle of Mankind. 1914. IMacmillan Co., New York. PALESTINE Bentwich, N., Palestine of the Jews, Past, Present and Future. 1919. Paul, London. Finley, John H., A Pilgrim in Palestine. 1919. Charles Scrib- ner's Sons, New York. Hyamson, A. M., Palestine, the Rebirth of an Ancient People. 1917. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Jastrow, M., Zionism and the Future of Palestine. 1919. Mac- millan Co., New York. PERSIA Shahbaz, Yonan H., The Rage of Islam. 1918. American Bap- tist Publication Society, Philadelphia. Shuster, W. IVI., Thi: Strangling of Persia. 1912. Century Co., New York. Sykes, Lieutenant-Colonel P. M., A History of Persia. 1915. Macmillan Co., New York. SYRIA Smith, Sir G. A., Syria and the Holy Land. 1918. Hodder & Stoughton, London. TURKEY Brown, Philip M., Foreigners in Turkey. 1914. Princeton Uni- versity Press, Princeton, N. J. Gibbons, Herbert, Foundations of the Ottoman Empire. 1916. Century Co., New York. Wilson, Elizabeth, The Road Ahead: E.rperiences in the Life of Frances C. Cage. 1918. The Womans Press, New York. BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 Religions Adeney, W. F., The Greek and Eastern Churches. 1908. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Barton, James L., Christian Approach to Islam. 1918. Pilgrim Press, Boston. Bliss. Frederick Jones, The Religions of Modern Syria and Pal- estine. 1912. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. MacDonald. D. B., Aspects of Islam. 191 1. Macmillan Co., New York. Zwemer, S. M., editor, The J'ital Forces of Christianity and Islam. 1918. Humphrey Milford, London. Missionary Barrows, J. A., In the Land of Ararat. Sketch of the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman Barrows Ussher of Turkey. 1916. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Barton, James L., Daybreak tn Turkey. 1908. Pilgrim Press, Boston. Gibbons, Helen D., The Red Rugs of Tarsus. 1917. Century Co.. New York. Greene, J. K., Leavening the Levant. 1916. Pilgrim Press, Boston. Jessup, Henrj' Harris, Fifty-three Years in Syria. 1910. Flem- ing H. Revell Co., New York. Rice, Clara C, Mary Bird of Persia. 1916. Church Missionary Society, London. Ussher, Clarence D. and Knapp, Grace H., An American Physi- cian in Turkey. 1917. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Zwemer, Samuel M., Arabia, th-e Cradle of Islam. 1900. Flem- ing H. Revell Co., New York. Meshed Medical Mission Stories. Presbyterian Board of Publi- cation, Philadelphia. Fiction Carhart, Alfreda Post, Masoud the B<:douin. 1915. Interchurch Press, New York. Dwight, Henry Otis, A Muslim Sir Galahad. 1913. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Holmes, Mary Caroline, Who Follows in Their Train. 1917. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. The Knock on the Door. 1918. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. INDEX Abbas Effendi, 66 Abdul Hamid, 17-18, 19, 54 Aden, missions at, 129 Africa, projected railroad into, 179 Agricultural resources, 91-93, 173 Aintab, Central Turkey College at, 160 Allenby, General, entrance of, into Jerusalem 3-6; varied races in army of, 4; railway, pipeline, and highway constructed by, 5; men- tioned, 185, 187 America, desire of Near Eastern races for, as Mandatory, 167, 206- 207; opportunity of, 207-213 " American Board," pioneer work of, 117 American Board of Foreign Mis- sions, 158, 159 American Committee for Relief in Near Eaf.t, 187 American Alission Press in Beirut, 116 American mission of Urumia, 83, 119, 135-136; refugees protected in, 186-187 American Red Cross, 187 American Red Cross Commission, 184-185 American schools, 157-163 Anatolia, disposal of area uncertain, 199 Anatolia College, 160 Anglo-Persian Oil Company, British interest in, 9 Arabia, Turkish control in, 14-15; new kingdom of, 15-16, 198; horses of, 93-94; effect of war upon, 128 Arabs, national spirit among, 14-15; new kingdom of, led by Lawrence, 16; racial characteristics, 40-42; present harmony between Syrians and, 198 Armeniain Russia, new republic of, 198 Armcnia-in-Turkey, new republic of, 198 Armenian Evangelical Church, 70 Armenian National Church, 70 226 Armenian Republic, 197, 198 Armenian Roman Catholic Ch-irch, 70 Armenians, 33-35, 133; persecution of, by Turks, 51-55, 71-72 Armenian schools, 145-146 Armenian troops 4, 12 Asia Minor, first missionaries sent to, 118 Assassins, ^^ohammedan order of, 65 Assiut, Christian institutions in, 129 Assyrian Church, 70 Australians in British army in Pales- tine, 4 Azerbaijan Republic, 197 B Baal Worship, 76 Baghdad, capture of, by British, lo- 1 1 Bahai, Mohammedan sect of the, 66 Bahrien, missions at, 129 Barton, Dr. James L., quoted, 123- 124 Basra, British forces in, 10 Barrat, missions at, 129 Beirut, Christian institutions in, 1:5-116, 129, 132; Syrian Protes- tant College at, 158, 167 Bible, translation of the, 132 Bliss, Dr. Daniel, 159, 167 Blifs, Dr. Howard, 167 Breslau, German crusier in Turkish waters, 16 British army, advance of, into Pales- tine, 3-8; varied troops in. 4; Baghdad captured by, 10; troops sent to protect Persian refugees, 12 British schools, 157 Cairo, Christian institutions in, 129, 132 Camels, 93-94 Cattle, 94 Caucasus, advance of Turkish army into the, 1 1 Central Turkey College, 160 Central Turkey Girls' College, 160 INDEX 227 Charms, common use of, r5 Children, future opportuiuty for work among, 185-186 Cholera, spread of, 181-184 Christianity, influence of, on Islam, 81; challenge of Near East to, 188- 190 Christians, ancient sects of, 68; counteracting influences upon Eastern, 79-80; persecution of, 51- 55. 71-72 Church, the Eastern, 68-71. 78-80; early councils of, 69; counteract- ing influences upon, 79-80; estab- lishment of Protestant, 131; pres- ent opportunity of, 191; responsi- bility of, 220 Church membership. Oriental, 126 Church Missionary Society of the Church of England, 83 Church school, the, 143-144 Citizenship, rights and privileges of, through the Church, 79-80, 124 Coal, 109 Colleges, established by missionary enterprise, 131, 158-160 Commercial expansion, possibilities of, 172-173, 191-192 Constantinople, Hible House of, 129, 132, Robert College in, 159; as League of Nations' capital, 171, 199-200, 213-215; political impor- tance of location, 176 Constantinople College for Women, 159 Convents on Lebanon Mountains, 77, ^ '^* Copper, 12, 109 Copts, the, so, 70, 120 Cuba, America's help to, cited, 191 Education, 142 fT; in Syria, loi; problems in, 163-166; need for sanitary, 184-185; need for ad- vancement in, 191-192 Egypt, as military base, 6-8; develop- ment of modern, 8-9; home lite in, 95-98; railroads in, io4-i«5; fertility of, 106; first missionaries sent to, 118, 119; schools in, 151- '52, 157; political importance of, i75> >79; missionary importance c.f, 179-180; not ready tor self- government, 201-202 Egyptians, in British army in Pales- tine, 4; national characteristics of, 49-51 Emery, 109 England, question of, as Mandatory, 203-204 English Palestine Relief Fund, 187 Enver Pasha, 20-21; quoted, 30 Euphrates College at Harpoot, 160 Evangelical church first organized, 121 " Evil Eye," power of belief in the, 74-75 Famine, in war time, 54-55, 186 Feisal, Emir, nationalistic movement in Syria under, 15; quoted con- cerning Syrian Protestant College, 167; mentioned, 220 Fisk, Pliny, 116-117 Flax, 109 French schools, 51, 153; seized by Turkish govemraent. 83 French troops in British army in Palestine, 4 Fruit, abundance of, 107, 108, 109 " Danger Zone of Europe," Near East as the, 181 Deportations, in Syria, 51-55; Mor- genthau's account of. cited, 186 Disease, spread of, in Moslem lands, 181-184 District Nurses, need for, 184 D'jemal Pasha, 7, 20-21 Hodd, Dr. W. S., quoted, 134 Donkeys, 94 Druses, Mohammedan sect of the, 66-67 Dwight, H. G. A., 117-118 Eastern Church, counteracting in- fluences upon, 79-80; contact of missions with, 122-125 Edinburgh Missionary Conference, 174 Garbage disposal, 181-182 Georgian Republic, 197 German schools, 154 Goats, 93-94 God, common use of name of, 73, 74; belief in nearness of, 76 Goeben, German cruiser in Turkish waters, 16 Gold, 109 Goodell, Dr., quoted, 123 Grain, abundance of, 106, 107, 108 Grant, Dr. and Mrs., 119 Greek Orthodox Church, 70, 177; customs and rites of, a hindrance to reform, 126 Greeks, the, 36-37; persecution of, by Turks, 5255, 71-72 Greek schools, 146-147 Gurkhas in British army in Pales- tine, 4 228 INDEX H " Hajj," significance of, as prefix, Handicraft, individual, 89-Qi Harpoot, Euphrates College in, 160 Health, See Public Health Hedja2, kingdom of the, 14-15. 1-28 Highways, See Roads Holy Land, tourists to the, 174 " Holy War," " Jehad " proclaimed by Sultan, 25 Home life, in Moslem city, 95-97; in peasant village, 98-99; in Lebanon mountains, 99-101; of mission pastor, 101-103 Horses, Arabian, 93-94 Hospitals, 131 Hussein, appointed Khedive of Egypt, 7 I Ibrahim Pasha, 6 Ignorance, effect of, on Eastern churches, 79 Illiteracy among Turks, 145 Industrialism, problems of modern 1 11-112 Industrial readjustment, 191-192 Industry, local and individual, 89- 91, 95 ; reorganization of, due to war, 1 10-112 International College at Smyrna, 160 Iron, 109 Irrigation, 92-93 Islam. See Mohammedanism Italians in British army in Palestine, " Janizaries," the, 185 " Jehad," Sec " Holy War " Jerusalem, entrance into, by Allenby, 3; return of Jews to, 44; World Sunday School Convention in, 173- 174 Jesuit-French missions, 70, 83, 153- 154 Jewish legion in British army in Palestine, 5 Jews, reestablishment of, s, 43-46; religion of. 62-63 "Jews' Wailing Place," 44 Jowett, Mr., 117 K Kavah, leather apron of, 48 Khalid, Moslem leader quoted, 48 Kingdom of the Hedjaz, the, 1415. 128 Kurds, the, 12, 14, 37-40. 94 Kur-i-Nuh, " the Mountain of Noah," 29 Kut-el-Amara, Turkish victory at, 10 Laboratories, need for research, 184 Lawrence, Thomas, Arabians led to victory by, 16 Lead, 109 League of Nations, Covenant quoted, 202-203, 213 M Mandatory, question of, 191, 202- 203; who should accept, 203-207 Manganese, 109 Manufacture, primitive methods of, 88-91, 95 Marash, Central Turkey Girls' Col- lege at, 160 Markets, unsanitary condition of, 182 Maron, leader of a Christian sect, 71 Maronites, the, 71 Marshall. General, in Mesopotamia, 1 1 Marsovan, Anatolia College in, 160 Martyn, Henry, 117 Massacres, 52-^5, 186 Maude, General, in Mesopotamia, 10; death of, 11 Mercury, 109 Meshed Hospital, opportunity for mission work in, 179 Mesopotamia, Allenby's campaign in, 5-6; British advance in, lo-ii; de- velopment of natural resources in, 11; irrigation in, 93; horses of, 94; natural resources of, 10/-109, 110; new industrial conditions in, 111, 128; England's desire for, 212 Mineral wealth, 109-110; develop- ment of, 173 Missionaries, American, in Urumia, 14 Mission pastor, home life of, 101-103 Mission schools, 154-157- 160-161 Mission work, pioneer days of, 117- 120; periods of development, 120- 122; contact with Eastern Christi- anity, 122-125; achievements, 126; contact with Mohammedanism, 127-134, 180-181; modern aim of, 129-130; results of, among Mo- hammedans, 130-133; in education, 154-161; opportunity for, among tourists and pilgrims, 175; Near East, the strategic center for, 176; need for, in Russia, 177. >" Western Asia, 178, in Meshed, 179; sanitation and, 185; effect on, if America accepts Mandatory, 215-219 Mohammed, 15; quoted, 65 Mohammedanism, 63-68, 71; religious and political power of, 25, 79-8«; INDEX 229 ■sects of, 65-67; religious duties of, 67-68; Christiaimy's influence upon, 8i ; missionary contact with 127-134, 180-181; etlect of war upon, ij8-i^9; political power dis- rupted, 1 34 Monasteries on Lebanon Mountains, 77. 1-4 Morgenthau, Henry, quoted, 31; cited, 186 Moslem. See Mohammedanism Moslem force in time of war, 51 Moslem house, visit to a. 95-97 Moslem shrines, pilgrims visit, 174- 175. «79 Moslem University, the, 143 Mosque school, 141-142 Mosul, II N Natural resources, development of, II, 173; of Egypt, 106; of Persia, 107, 109, 110; of Turkey, 107- 108, 109, no Near East, ancient hatreds and rival- ries in, 57, 196; traveling in, 104- 106; importance of early trade, 172; political importance of, 175; need for reform in, 191-192 Near East Relief, 10 Nestorians, the, 70, 119 New Zealanders in British army in Palestine, 4 Nile valley, fertility of, 106 Nusiinyeh, Mohammedan sect of the, 66 Oil-wells, Persian, 5. 9-10, 12, no Othman, " Janizaries " organized by, 1 85 Palestine, advance of British forces into, 3-8; reestabhshnient of Jew- ish state in. 46; roads in. 104; first missionaries sent to, ii3 Parsons, Levi, 11 6-1 17 Pastoral Life, 93-94 Pathans in British army in Pales- tine, 4 Peasant village, home life in, 98, 100-104 Perkins, Rev. and Mrs. Justin, 119 Persecution of Christians, 51-55, 71- 7^ Persia, German and Turkish agents in, 10; Turkish and German vic- tories in, 12; William M. Shuster in, 13; loss of vigor in, 13-14: railways and post-offices in, 14; rug making in, 87-89; fertility of, 107; first missionary work in, 119; schools in, 140151, 155-157; politi- cal iiiipurtancc of, 175-176 Persians, the, 47-49 Petroleum, 5, y-io, u, 110 Philippines, America's occupation of, cited, 191 Pilgrims, religious, 173-175, 179; spicail of disease by, 182-184 •l"illar Saints," 68-69 Pipeline laid by .Vllcnby across the desert, 5; threatened by Turks, 11, 1 10 Plague, spread of, 181-184 Political importance of Near East, '75 Political reorganization, need for, ipi-192 Politics, close relation of, to re- ligion, 79-8o, 1 J4 Protestant church, the, 125, 131, 191, 2 JO Public liealth, 181-184 R Railways, 5, 14, 15, 104-106, 179 Raratongans in British army in Palestine, 4 Reconstruction, loss of Christians to, 71-72; problems of, 95, 134-135; brought about by war, 1 10-112; need for, 185-186 Red Cross, .American, 187 Refugees, Persian, protected by Brit- ish troops. 12; in American mis- sion at Uramia, 186-187 Relief Work, 185-186, 187-188, 189 Religion, relation of. to life in Xear East, 61-63; close relation of, to politics, 79-80. 124 Religious ceremonies, 7475 Religious education, problem of how to promote, 164-166 Religious temperament of people, 72- 79 Richard of the Lion Heart, 37 Roads, 5. 104, 106 Robert College. Constantinople, 159 Rosse\elt, Theodore, quoted, 9 Round Table, The, quoted, 176 Rug making, 88-89 Russia, work for the Christian church in. 177 Said Pasha, 120 St. Paul's College at Tarsus, 160 Saladin. 38 Salt, 109 Sanitation, need for, 181-184 Sanitary education, 184-185 Schools, 131, 141 ff.; increased ex- pense of maintaining. 165-166 Self-government in Near East, 200 230 INDEX Sewers and drains, 181-182 Shedd, Dr. William A., 136-138; Mrs. W. A , quoted on mission schools, 155-157 Sheep, 93-94 , . , ^. Sberif of Mecca, proclaimed King of the Hedjaz, 15 ShVahs, the, 65 Shrines, pilgrims visit, I73-I7S. 179 Shuster, William M., reorganization in Persia, by, 10, 13 Sikhs in British Army in Palestine, 4 Silk culture, 109 Silver, 109 Simon Stylites, 68-69 Sivas, Teachers College at, 160 Smallpox, spread of, 181-184 Smith, Eli, 117-118 Smyrna, International College at, 160 Social conditions, changed by war, 111-112; effect of European ideas upon, 133; need for transforma- tion of, 191-192 Society of Friends, 83 Sudanese in British army in Pales- tine, 4 Sultan of Turkey, 15 Sunnis, the, 65 Superstitious, 73-76 Syria, Emir Feisal directs national- istic movement in, 15; Moslem force in, 51-55; famine in, 54; cooperative work planned in, 83- 84; home life in, 99-103; roads in, 104, 128; French schools estab- lished in, 153-154; mentioned, 198; Frances plan for, 212 Syrian Protestant College of Beirut, 83, 158. 167 Syrians, the, 42-43; persecution of, 51-55, 71-72; present harmony be- tween Arabs and, 198 Tabriz. 14; mission at, 129 Taft, William H., cited, 13 Talaat Pasha, 20-21, 54 Tarsus, St. Paul's College at, 160 Tartar Republic, 197 Teachers CoMege at Sivas, 160 Teheran, missions at, 129 Tobacoo. 109 Tourists to Holy Land, strategic significance of, 174-175 Trade of Near East, early import- ance of, 172 Traveling in the East, 104-106 Trees, sacred, 75-76 Turkey, control of, in Arabia, 15; ■. entrance of, into war, 16-17; story of imprisoned Pasha, 17; under "Young Turks," 17; foreign in- fluences in, 21-24; foreign " con- cessions " or " capitulations," 22- 23; breaking up of, 24-25; fer- tility of, 107-108; petroleum in, 110; modern missions in, 129; German mission schools in, 154; political importance of, 175; Am- bassador Morgenthau's story of, cited, 186; political and racial problems in, 198 Turkish Educational System, 147-149 Turkish Empire, former boundaries of, 171 Turkish Government, railroad built by, 15, 105 Turkish Power, collapse of, 5-6 Turks, the 30-33; persecutions b}-, 51-55. 71-72; illiteracy among, 145; opposition of, to change of capital, 200 Typhus fever, spread of, 181-184 U University of St. Joseph in Beirut, ,153 Urumia, American mission m, 14, 83; Dr. and Mrs. Grant arrive in, 119; evacuation of, 135-136; refu- gees protected in, 186-187 Vartanes, Priest, excommunication of, 124 Villages, here life in, 98, 100-104 Vocational schools, 165 W Wahabis, Mohammedan sect of the, 66 Washburn, Dr. George, 159 Water buffalo, 94 West Indians in British army in Palestine, 4 Wire-mesh netting road over desert, 5 Wolf, Dr. J^eph, 119 World Sunday School Convention in Jerusalem, 173-174 X Xenophon, 38 Y Young Men's Christian Association, 84 " Young Turks," Turkey under the, 17-21 Zionism, 45-46 Zwemmer, Samuel, quoted, 179 o llail RAILROADS >^-^in operation -^ y o / <-?'.. ( — ^>* ^ ?• ! DS H35 ^/ Hall, Williajn H The Near East I PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY lrr« \,iih» ' Ki>« ^